While replete with theological demands for life and moral requisites, very few passages in the Bible allow for open analysis of Jesus' own position in ethical politics. While the gospels proffer more opportunities for development, Matthew 3:38-45 is the crux of these keyholes into the structure of the Christ. Extolling followers to be like the flawless Christ, this lesson in enemies and love is the foundation of the Christian ethical ideal. In its corollaries to Hebrew texts and historical social mores, the message of radical non-retaliation and call for perfection demands thorough analysis of not only its strengths, but also the conflicts and textual keys that provide its ultimate opacity.

             Both the Gospels of Matthew and Luke provide illuminating insight into Jesus' teachings, most plainly through the Sermon the Plain in Luke and that of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Each draw upon the cultural norms of the Hebrew society and the biblical texts that supported them to transform ideologies of basic goodwill to a functioning wisdom of perfection and are based in the "cultural intertexture" that wove "personage, concept, and tradition" into a new ideal.1 This reconfiguration of commonly held norms, like those of good equity and civic obedience, were the basis of an enhancement and "recontextualization" of accepted wisdom and practice for a new way, holy in the Christian world.2.

             The central focus of this passage is to address the relationship of an individual with others, especially those in positions of opposition. The verses of Matthew: 38-48 are reminiscent of Luke 6:31, "Do to others as you would have them do unto you." The liturgical association with previous chapters is reiterated in the Hebrew book of Tobit, "And what you hate, do not do to anyone." (Tobit 4:15) The precept of goodwill is preeminent in both Christian and Jewish texts, emblematic of its acceptance as a permanent part of society.