Matthew 5:44

"“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’"

Key Reflection

In Jesus' teaching, this commandment reflects the legalistic approach common in his time, where loving one's neighbor while hating one's enemy created division. By contrasting it with his own instruction to love both friend and foe, Jesus challenges the listener to a higher standard of universal love, transcending such artificial distinctions.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 44. Love your enemies. There are two kinds of love, involving the same general feeling, or springing from the same fountain of goodwill to all mankind, but differing still so far as to admit of separation in idea. The one is that feeling by which we approve of the conduct of another, commonly called the love of complacency; the other, by which we wish well to the person of another, though we cannot approve his conduct. This is the love of benevolence; and this love we are to bear towards our enemies.

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