The "Love your neighbour and hate your enemies" did not come from the Bible. The first bit did (Leviticus 19:18), but the second bit did not and was the saying of religious teachers. In fact it is worth looking at the whole of Leviticus 5:18 which says:
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD
So we see that Jesus' teaching is actually in line with the heart of what the Law said. This is further illustrated by Exodus 23:4 where the command says if you come across your enemy's donkey you must return it.
We are to love everyone. Now note that love is not merely an emotion, it involves actions. The reason we are to do this is that we are to be like God. "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect". Perfect here has the sense of complete. This is amazing, Jesus is saying we are to be like God. But this is not really amazing, for right back in Genesis 1 it says we were created in God's image. We were always meant to be like God, to reflect His character.
We are called to be extraordinary. Everyone is kind to their friends, but God gives good things to all people. We are to be likewise.
Loving our enemies can be very difficult. It can be difficult to do, and even when we do it it can be difficult to know if we truly love them, for there are often a whole load of emotions going on inside us. Here prayer is vital. Keep on praying a blessing on their life. God will then change our hearts.
Finally notice the mention of reward. We will say more about this later, but Jesus is always going on about rewards.
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