Matthew 5:43-48

Matthew 5:43-Galatians : . Loving One’ s Neighbour ( cf. Luke 6:27 f., Matthew 5:32-Zephaniah :).—“ Thou shalt love thy neighbour” ( i.e. fellow Israelite) is the precept of the Law ( Leviticus 19:18); “ and hate thine enemy” is a Rabbinic inference from, e.g. Deuteronomy 23:3-Joshua :, which found much support in apocalyptic writings ( cf. pp. 623f.). As in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus sweeps away all distinctions. The additions to Matthew 5:44 in AV are due to Luke 6:27 f.

Matthew 5:45 . Sons are those who share their Father’ s character. If God were to give natural blessings like sun and rain to His friends and withhold them from His enemies, the natural world would be a chaos: “ in so far as His sons fall short of His nature the spiritual world is a chaos.” Those who love only their friends miss the Divine reward ( Luke 6:35), the attainment of the Father’ s character.

Matthew 5:46 . What reward have ye? Justin Martyr has, “ Are you doing anything new?” which is perhaps derived from an older text than ours.— publicans: i.e. customs officers of inferior rank, the underlings of the publicani proper (p. 615); they exercised gross oppression and took money for an alien power, so that the Jews regarded them as outcasts, cf. p. 622.

Matthew 5:47 b. brethren may mean “ pious law-keeping Jews” in view of early readings “ the godless,” or “ tax-gatherers,” in place of “ Gentiles.”

Matthew 5:48 . therefore sums up the teaching of Matthew 5:17-2 Corinthians :; ye (my disciples) is emphatic; the future (“ shall be” ) has the force of a command. The comparison with the Divine character is far in advance of that noted in Leviticus 11:44; Leviticus 19:2 ff.