"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt 5:43-48)
Jesus quotes the Bible. ('You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'). But Bible does not say that you have to hate your enemies. What Jesus wants to communicate here is that one should be ready to even beyond the scriptures to love and relate to people. Rules, regulations and scriptures are important. But one should go beyond all these when one to face another person.
If one wants to be a child of God one has to go beyond the limits of friends, enemies etc. Persons should not be put into categories. People are beyond all groups and categories. Persons are only to be loved and related with. In relating to people the only model is God the father. As the father sends rain on the good and the bad so also should the followers of Jesus be.
If one relates to people keeping in mind categories then he is like a tax collector and a pagan, in the sense he is not the child of God. In the context of today’s reading being perfect is like being god the father who does not have any distinction and does not have any differences among people.
