‘“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is 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 do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?’ (Matthew 5:43-47 ESV)
What a difficult passage to implement! Jesus spoke this while he was giving the sermon on the mount, and he covers a couple concepts here about the people around you. The first thing he addresses is loving your enemy. No one wants to love those who want to hurt us. No one wants to pray for those who cause us harm. However, that is what Jesus commands here. We should pray for and teach those in wrong. Just because they hurt us does not mean they are not able to be saved.
The second thing Jesus talks about is the way God treats his creation, both his children and others. He says that the sun rises on the evil and the good, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Just because we are Christians does not mean we are to be free from all turmoil, and people who are in sin are not subject to extra turmoil, in this world. See John 9:1-3, Matthew 5:10, and 2 Timothy 3:12. The ‘Prosperity Gospel’ would have you believe different, but the Bible is clear that following God will not make you rich.
The last thing Jesus addresses is loving others who may not be like us. All of these points are connected, and much of the first paragraph applies here, but one extra thing I will mention is that we should be careful not to only teach the gospel to those who are like us. Those who look like us, talk like us, hold our political beliefs, or are in the same economic class as us are not the only ones who need to hear the gospel. Paul, for example, taught many different kinds of people. Jews, Gentiles, Roman citizens, prisoners, guards, sailors, philosophers, judges, rulers, perhaps even Caesar himself. We must not limit our teaching to those like us, we need to show our love to everyone, and teach everyone the gospel.
Certainly, more can be drawn from this, and this is just a basic idea of the passage, but hopefully, this will spur some thought.