Loving Like Your Father

Today’s Passage: Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus comes now to the last and hardest of His sayings on the mountain. He has already reached the angry heart and the wandering eye. Now He reaches the one person we feel sure we are allowed to hate. He points, instead, to the wide sky over every field, and to a Father whose love falls on all.

As you read, hold this: Love your enemies, because that is how your Father in heaven has already loved you.

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,

People had learned a tidy rule. Love the ones close to you. Hate the ones against you. It feels fair, and it feels natural. Jesus takes the rule apart with one sentence. Love your enemies. Then He shows how: pray for them. It is very hard to keep hating someone you are asking God to bless.

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.

Here is the reason, and it is not a rule at all. It is a family likeness. Look at your Father, Jesus says. His sun warms the kind and the cruel alike. His rain feeds the good field and the neglected one. He is generous to people who never thank Him. When you love an enemy, you are not straining to be good. You are simply starting to look like your Dad.

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?

Loving people who love you back is easy. Anyone can do it. Even the people everyone looked down on did that much. Jesus is not impressed by love that only returns a favor. He is asking for something no one can fake: love that gives where nothing comes back.

Matthew 5:48 (BSB)

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

This last line can sound crushing, as if Jesus just set a bar no one can clear. But the word behind perfect (τέλειος) teleios, pronounced TEL-ay-oss. Strong's G5046, complete, mature, fully grown. This word does not mean never making a mistake. It means grown all the way up, like ripe fruit. Jesus is asking your love to grow until it reaches even your enemies, the way your Father’s love already does. is gentler than it looks. He is not demanding a spotless record. He is calling His children to grow into the full, wide love of their Father. And here is the good news hidden inside the command. We do not begin this by trying harder. We begin it by remembering how we were loved first.

So this command is not a heavy new burden laid on tired shoulders. It is an invitation to hand on what we have received. The Father loved His enemies at the cross. Now His children get to love theirs, and slowly, look more and more like Him.

Personal Application

1. Who comes to mind when you hear the word “enemy,” and what would it look like to pray for that person by name?

2. Where has your love stayed small and safe, only going to people who love you back?

Decision of the day: Pick one person who is hard to love. Pray one honest sentence for their good today, asking God to bless them.

Pray to Close

The central truth: We love our enemies because our Father loved us first, while we were still His enemies.

Praise: praise God that His kindness reaches the good and the evil alike, that His love found you.

Confess: confess any name you have quietly filed under “enemy” and refused to pray for.

Ask: ask the Father to grow your love up, until it looks a little more like His.