I ask the Manichaeans why they would have this peculiar to the Mosaic Law, that was said by them of old time, “thou shalt hate thy enemy?” Has not Paul said of certain men that they were hateful to God? We must enquire then how we may understand that, after the example of God, to whom the Apostle here affirms some men to be hateful, our enemies are to be hated; and again after the same pattern of Him “Who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good,” our enemies are to be loved.
Here then is the rule by which we may at once hate our enemy for the evil’s sake that is in him, that is, his iniquity, and love him for the good’s sake that is in him, that is, his rational part. This then, thus uttered by them of old, being heard, but not understood, hurried men on to the hatred of men, when they should have hated nothing but vice.
Such the Lord corrects as He proceeds, saying, “I say unto you, Love your enemies.” He who had just declared that He came “not to subvert the Law, but to fulfil it,” by bidding us love our enemies, brought us to the understanding of how we may at once hate the same man for his sins whom we love for his human nature.
Reproduced in full. Translation: Oxford 1841 (Newman), public domain (Public domain).
Also cites: cont. Faust., xix, 24