If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same?
Love returned for love is mere justice; love for hatred is divine goodness, a Christ-like temper. Even heathens love those who love them back. Christianity must teach you farther, to love your enemies. Yet how men confine their love to little sects and parties, forgetting the catholic love that renders us glorious in heaven.
AI summary
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
Loving only those who love you is selfish, not genuine love of character but love of benefit. You deserve no praise for it. The publicans were despised tax collectors under Roman rule, men of abandoned character, extortionate and dissolute, yet even they would love their benefactors. To do no more is to match the wretched.
AI summary