People sometimes say the Bible tells you to hate your enemies. Jesus heard that saying too. He repeated it out loud, and then he changed it.
On the hillside
Jesus was sitting on a hill above a lake, teaching a crowd. Most of them were poor working people. Many lived under Roman soldiers who could force them to carry their gear and could hurt them without paying any price. These people knew what an enemy was.
Jesus started with what they had heard all their lives.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
Matthew 5:43-44 · King James VersionThe original Greek
Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη· Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου καὶ μισήσεις τὸν ἐχθρόν σου. ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν καὶ προσεύχεσθε ὑπὲρ τῶν διωκόντων ὑμᾶς·
Found in Codex Vaticanus (about AD 325), Codex Sinaiticus (about AD 350).
The oldest copies have a shorter verse 44: love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. The words "bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you" appear in later copies, which the King James Version was translated from.
That must have been hard to hear. These were people with real enemies, standing right there in their town.
Why he said it
Jesus gave a reason, and it was about God. He said God makes the sun come up on bad people and good people. He sends rain on people who do right and people who do wrong.
God does not hold back the sun from anyone. So Jesus asked his listeners to be like that. To be children of a Father who is kind to everyone.
He also said that loving people who love you back is easy. Anyone can do that. The new thing was loving the person who does not love you.
He did it himself
Jesus did not only say it. On the night he was arrested, one of his own followers pulled out a sword and cut off the ear of a servant in the crowd that came for him. Jesus told him to stop, touched the servant's ear, and healed it. He healed a man who had come to take him away.
What this means for us
Loving an enemy does not mean letting them keep hurting you. It means you do not wish them harm. You can even pray for them.
That is hard for all of us. We have all had someone we wanted to see fall. But Jesus offered a different way to live, and he showed it with his own hands. The sun comes up on everyone. So can our kindness.