Scripture Daily

Context No. 3166 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 5:43-48: in context

43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, 45that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 48Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

You have heard it said, Jesus tells the crowd, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

Jesus lifts love past its natural limit. Anyone loves those who love them; even bad people do that much. The mark of God's children is loving the enemy, blessing the curser, praying for the persecutor, because that is exactly how the Father acts, sending sun and rain without discrimination on the just and the unjust alike. To love only those who love us is nothing special; to love our enemies is to reflect the Father's own generous, boundary-crossing love. And the goal, be perfect as your Father is perfect, is not flawlessness but this completeness of love that leaves no one, not even an enemy, outside its reach.

Does my love reach as far as my enemies, reflecting the Father who sends sun and rain on the evil and the good alike?

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