Matthew 5:43–45

Love for Enemies

5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’52 and ‘hate your enemy.’ 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemy and53 pray for those who persecute you, 5:45 so that you may be like54 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.

52	sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
53	tc Most mss ([D] L [W] Θ f13 33 𝔐 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 f1 pc sa, as well as several fathers and versional witnesses.
54	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.