Luke 6:31
What does Luke 6:31 mean?
“As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.
The short answer
Luke 6:31 is the Golden Rule in its simplest form: treat other people the way you would want them to treat you. Not the way they have treated you, and not the way you suspect they might. Jesus makes your own hopes for kindness, fairness, and patience the measuring stick for how you act toward everyone else.
What keeps this verse from being a pleasant platitude is where Luke places it. It sits in the middle of Jesus' hardest teaching: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you (Luke 6:27–28). The "people" in Luke 6:31 are not just friends and family. They include the person who wronged you yesterday and the one who may wrong you tomorrow. Jesus is describing a love that does not wait for reciprocity—as he says a few verses later, even sinners love those who love them back.
The rule is also active, not passive. Jesus does not say merely to avoid doing harm; he says to "do exactly so to them." That means taking the first step: offering the generosity, honesty, or forgiveness you wish someone would offer you, before there is any guarantee it will be returned.
Read this way, Luke 6:31 is less a tip for smooth social life and more a portrait of God's own character. The passage ends with Jesus calling his hearers to be merciful as their Father is merciful (Luke 6:36)—kind even to the ungrateful. The Golden Rule, in Luke, is what that mercy looks like in everyday practice: imagining what you would long for in someone else's position, and then actually doing it.
What scholars say
In this excerpt, Frances Taylor Gench contrasts Luke's command to love enemies (Luke 6:27–36) with John's Gospel, which directs love toward one's own community—and, drawing on Gail O'Day, she cautions that loving the people we see every day can be even harder than loving our enemies.
“The third peculiarity appears by way of contrast when we recall that the other Gospels exhort disciples to love their neighbors (Mark 12:28–34; Matt. 22:34–40; Luke 10:25–28) and even their enemies (Matt. 5:43–48; Luke 6:27–36). John’s Gospel focuses the love commandment on the community of disciples itself. It speaks of in-house love, calling Christians to “love one another.” We ought not to assume, however, that this makes John’s love commandment easier to follow. Indeed, Gail O’Day wisely cautions against dismissing the ethical seriousness of this commandment: “The history of the church and of individual communities of faith suggests that to love one another may be the most difficult thing Jesus could have asked. There are many circumstances in which it is easier to love one’s enemies than it is to love those with whom one lives, works, and worships day after day.”
What it means for you
Start with the people closest to you. It is tempting to read Luke 6:31 as a rule for strangers and adversaries, but the daily test usually comes from the people we live, work, and worship alongside—the coworker who irritates us, the family member who knows exactly which buttons to push. Before responding to any of them, pause and ask a concrete question: if our positions were reversed, what would I hope for? A generous interpretation of my words? A second chance? Then offer that first, without waiting to see whether it will be repaid. The rule asks for initiative, not scorekeeping.
Luke 6 in context
Luke 6 shows Jesus' authority provoking conflict—over the Sabbath, over healing—before he chooses the twelve apostles and delivers the Sermon on the Plain. That sermon opens with blessings and woes that overturn ordinary expectations (Luke 6:20–26), then moves straight into the command to love enemies (6:27–36). Verse 31 sits at the heart of that section, summarizing what enemy-love looks like in practice. The sermon continues with warnings against judging others and a call to build life on Jesus' words like a house on rock.