“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 causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
– Matthew 5:43-48
Every one of my daughters can tell you what it is like when people say, “You look just like your dad.” The resemblance is striking, especially if you compare their infant pictures to mine. In all fairness, they do resemble their mother as well. Still, the image of their father in their own features is undeniable. They didn’t ask for it, and I have doubts as to whether or not they like it. Regardless, those daughters do look like their dad. As we will discover, this is the very thing Jesus wants of his followers.
In this passage Jesus continues his theme of heightening expectations. He begins by combining two familiar thoughts: loving neighbor and hating enemy. The first explicitly comes from the Torah. Leviticus 19:17-18 says, “You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.” The second thought seems to be implied, but obviously it had become common rabbinic teaching. It may be based on texts like Deuteronomy 23:3-6 that speak of people groups who were to be excluded from the Lord’s assembly. Two groups named in that passage are the Ammonites and Moabites, both of whom had resisted the Hebrew people in their sojourning. About them, Deuteronomy 23:6 says, “You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.” In context it seems understandable.
You may recall that some people in Jesus’ time wanted very much to clarify what qualifies one to be your “neighbor” (see Luke 10:29). At least with two options you have an escape. “If I like them, and if they are kind to me, I can call them a neighbor. If they aren’t, I can call them my enemy. Therefore I will love my neighbor and hate my enemy.” See how easy that is? The thing is, Jesus tends to not let us off with easy stuff. Easy isn’t remarkable. Easy doesn’t transform the world. Jesus doesn’t call his followers to something easy; he calls them to reflect the very nature of God through their lives.
How many times have you walked outside on a temperate, bright morning and thought to yourself, “God has sure given us a beautiful day!”? Or think about those peaceful spring rains that leave the air smelling fresh with life. Do you know who receives the blessing of those days? Everyone does. Not just the “good” people who deserve it (like any of us REALLY deserve it). God gives those and countless other blessings to the good AND the bad, the righteous AND the unrighteous. Remarkably, God makes no distinction. Perhaps this is why such blessings are rightly understood to be acts of grace.
Jesus calls us to follow God’s example. Shall we pray only for those who pray for us? Shall we love only those who are lovable? Shall we be kind only to those who show kindness to us? If this is the limit of our graciousness, what have we done that is at all remarkable? Nothing. Here again, Jesus invites his followers to walk a higher road. If you love only those who are lovable, and pray only for those whom you determine deserve prayer, then you basically look like everyone else. Even the unreligious meet such standards. However, if you pray for those who persecute you, and love those who hate you, you begin to look like Dad. This is the divine nature on display. It is Jesus’ desire for you and me.
Some people know that Matthew 5:48 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. That may sound surprising. Many people have a mild look of shock when they hear “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” It does sound beyond the realm of possibility. If that is the case, though, it means we have missed the point. This is Jesus’ way of challenging us to take our spiritual maturity to its maximum potential. It doesn’t mean we become God, or that we never make mistakes. It just means that we allow the Holy Spirit to do a complete work in us, not being satisfied with just “better than I used to be.”
Allow me to pose this question. As a spirit-born child of God, what is God’s predestined vision for you? If you take Romans 8:29 at its word, your predestination is to become conformed to the image of Christ. If you don’t believe me, read it for yourself. (In fact, read it for yourself even if you DO believe me.) In plain language, God’s goal for Christians is for us to look like Jesus in the fullness of his character. And what does the Son look like? That’s right, he looks like Dad. “He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and “in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). When Philip asked Jesus to reveal the Father to them, Jesus responded by saying, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Please don’t be unnerved when I say this, but I think Jesus wants people to see the same in us. To be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect sounds like an impossibly tall order, but I don’t think Jesus would say it if he didn’t think it were possible. When people see us, Jesus wants people to see our good, good Father in all of His graciousness and mercy. May God give us the grace to bear His image to others as we go through our day.
See you along the Winding Path.
The Winding Path 