that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
45. That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven. When he expressly declares, that no man will be a child of God, unless he loves those who hate him, who shall dare to say, that we are not bound to observe this doctrine?
The Jewish teachers corrupted God's law. He said love your neighbor; they twisted it to mean only their own nation and friends, then added what He never said: hate your enemy. I come as Peacemaker to teach you differently: love your enemies as I have loved you.
AI summary
Commenting on Matthew 5:43-48
That ye may be the children of your father,.... Not that any became the children of God, by doing things in imitation of him: for as in nature no man becomes the son of another by imitating him, or by doing the things he does but either by birth, or by adoption; so in grace no man becomes a child of God by the works...