Loving Like Your Father

Today’s Passage: Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus issues the final demand of His sermon on the mount. He dealt with the angry heart and the wandering eye. Now He targets the person you feel fully justified in hating. He points straight to the sky over a farm. He points to a God whose rain waters the crops of a good man and a wicked man on the exact same afternoon. You can love your enemies because your Father in heaven loved you first.

Matthew 5:43-44 (BSB)

⁴³ You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

The religious leaders taught a comfortable system. Love your family. Love your friends. Hate the people who oppose you. That system makes logical sense. It fits human nature perfectly. Jesus dismantles it in one sentence. He commands you to love your enemies. Then He provides the practical mechanism to do it. You pray for them. Try holding onto your hatred for a man while you are actively asking God to bless his life. The hatred starves.

Matthew 5:45 (BSB)

⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Jesus anchors His command in an observable fact. He points to the physical world. Sunlight hits a thief exactly the way it hits a priest. Rain falls on a well-tended vineyard and a neglected weed patch at the same time. God gives weather, crops, and breath to people who spend their lives cursing Him. He demonstrates generosity to His enemies every day. Loving an opponent is how you display your family resemblance. You act like your Father.

Matthew 5:46-47 (BSB)

⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same?

Affection requires zero spiritual power when the other person loves you back. The Roman tax collector extorting his neighbors loves his own children. The pagan bowing to a carved idol greets his own brothers warmly. Jesus demands a standard of evidence that the world cannot duplicate. He requires a love that spends itself on a person who refuses to pay it back.

Matthew 5:48 (BSB)

⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus issues a command that sounds impossible. He tells you to be perfect (τέλειος) teleios, pronounced TEL-ay-oss. Strong's G5046, complete, mature, fully grown. The Greek word used here describes something that has reached its intended end. It pictures a piece of fruit that has grown to full maturity. Jesus calls your love to grow up. He wants it to stretch across the boundary lines of your comfort until it reaches your enemies. . A flawless moral record escapes every human being. Jesus knows your record. He calls you to grow into the wide, unmerited love of God. You start this process by examining the evidence of your own life. You look at how God treated you.

The command to love your enemies demands a verdict. You look at the cross. You see a Father who loved His enemies enough to bleed for them. You take that unearned grace and you aim it at the person across from you. You choose to act like your Father. Identify a specific person who causes you grief today, and speak one sentence to God asking Him to bless their life.

Pray to Close

Thank God for a physical world that displays His mercy, remembering that His rain falls on the wicked and His grace found you when you were still an enemy. Confess the name of a specific person you treat poorly, acknowledging any refusal to pray for their good. Ask the Father to mature your love and help you closely resemble Him today.