“Even sinners love those who love them”
Luke 6:32–33
Cultural referenceSettledJesus
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. (Luke 6:32–33 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A jab at an unpopular profession, like joking about lawyers.
The cultural key
Telōnai were locals who contracted to collect tolls and taxes for Rome, profiting on whatever they squeezed out above the contract. They were seen as collaborators and presumed cheats; rabbinic tradition grouped them with robbers and disqualified them as court witnesses. 'Tax collector' was shorthand for the moral floor. Where Matthew's comparison figures are tax collectors and Gentiles, categories with bite for a Jewish audience, Luke generalizes to 'sinners' for readers who were Gentiles themselves. Same floor, relabeled.
Recovered meaning
'Even the most despised, self-serving people you can name love their own circle. If your love goes no further, what exactly is distinctive about it?'
Parallels: Matthew 5:46