Luke 6:27

τοῖς�. ‘To you who (really) hear.’ Euthymius Zigabenus paraphrases it τοῖς πειθομένοις μου.

ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν. This had been distinctly the spirit of the highest part of the Law and the Old Testament. Exodus 23:4, “If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.” Proverbs 25:21, “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat.” Yet in many passages it had practically been said “to men of old time,” at any rate in some cases, “thou shalt hate thine enemy,” Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 23:6; 1 Chronicles 20:3; 2 Samuel 12:31; Psalms 137:8-9, &c. On these passages the fierce fanaticism of the Pharisaic Jews, after the Exile, had so exclusively fed, that we find the Talmud ringing with precepts of the most bitter hatred against all Gentiles, and the ancients had, not unnaturally, been led to the conclusion that detestation of all but Jews was a part of the Jewish religion (“adversus omnes alios hostile odium,” Tac. Hist. Luke 6:5; Juv. Sat. XIV. 103).

καλῶς ποιεῖτε τοῖς μισοῦσιν ὑμᾶς. See the precept beautifully enforced in Romans 12:17; Romans 12:19-21.