The people were familiar with the concept of loving your neighbour, Jesus now tells them that this includes loving your enemy. We are to do good to them, bless them, and pray for them. This is the exact opposite of our natural inclinations. Jesus then tells us to turn the other cheek, and to give to whoever asks. Then closes this section with "do to others as you would have them do to you". Now it is important that we do not treat these as laws, but as principles, and Jesus is probably using some hyperbole to get the point across. At the same time, it would be equally wrong to effectively neutralise the meaning of these verses. We must remember that Jesus went to the cross, and did indeed turn the other cheek. There will be times when following these principles go against all our human nature, but even so we must do it.
Jesus then explains what He means. It is straight forward common sense to love those who love us. Everyone does that. There is nothing wrong with this, indeed it makes the world work, but there is nothing particularly virtuous about it, just common sense. Jesus calls us to love those who will not love back, to give to those who will not give back.
Why are we to do this? Because it is the nature of the Father. He loves and is merciful to all, and most do not react with gratitude. It is part of living as children of God. Note also that Jesus says "your reward will be great". We will be truly rich if we do this.
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