Matthew 5:43-45

Love for Enemies

5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ ¹  and ‘hate your enemy.’ 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemy and ²  pray for those who persecute you, 5:45 so that you may be like ³  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

[5:43]  ¹ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.

[5:44]  ² tc Most mss ([D] L [W] Θ Ë¹³ 33 Ï lat) read “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you,” before “those who persecute you.” But this is surely a motivated reading, importing the longer form of this aphorism from Luke 6:27-28. The shorter text is found in א B ˹ pc sa, as well as several fathers and versional witnesses.

[5:45]  ³ tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.