Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:42-48)
Archimandrite Zacharias comments:
“We know that the greatest of God’s commandments is that of love – love towards God and love towards man: on those two commandments hang the law and the Prophets, all heaven and earth. More particularly, the summit of the commandment to love our neighbor is to love and pray for our enemies. For he who loves his enemies loves his neighbor perfectly and loves God perfectly, being conformed to the Spirit of the Savior-God Who stretched out His arms on the Cross and embraced all, friends and enemies alike, those far from Him and those near to Him, those who know Him and those who do not.
So the man who loves his enemies and does good to them that hate him has fulfilled the two great commandments to the utmost and knows God as He is.” (REMEMBER THY FIRST LOVE, p 318)
Fraternized 