1. Matthew 5:43 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

How did the Jews of Jesus’ day typically understand the command to love your neighbour and hate your enemy?

Matthew 5:43 (ESV)

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

In the time when Jesus ministered, there was a big debate in the Jewish community regarding the identity of your neighbour. Many Jews understood this to be an exclusive term such that a neighbour was only your fellow Israelite. Jesus would speak to this particular understanding in a more expansive manner when he tells the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). 1 Enemies would have typically been seen as the Romans and the other Gentiles (non-Israelites) who lived among them.