Matthew 5:44-47
Dive Deeper
“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 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 5:44-47
Behind the Scenes
Today’s verses come from a teaching by Jesus known as the Sermon on the Mount and can be found in the Matthew, chapters 5 through 7. Jesus had been traveling through the region of Galilee talking about the Kingdom of God and healing people. As a result, crowds of people surrounded him wherever he went. One day, he went to the top of a hill and began to teach them. The Sermon on the Mount contains a lot of deep truths about the Christian life. The verses here focus on love which is the theme in this week’s Fruit of the Spirit series.
Biblical scholars view the Sermon in different ways. Some say it is a collection from several of Jesus’ teachings while others view it as one single teaching. I like how the Christian writer Dallas Willard presents it in his book The Divine Conspiracy. He views it as one teaching and he present the various themes in the sermon as an outline for Spirit-empowered Christian living. He makes two key points.
First, we are unable to produce spiritual fruit with our own efforts. We need God’s Spirit living within us, changing our hearts every day to be more like Jesus. Second, the Sermon teaches that the Christian life is like a series of steps or a ladder. To get to higher levels of practicing a fruit of the Spirit, you usually must go through the lower levels first.
The Spirit of God may change you totally and have you loving your enemies effortlessly on day one of your Christian life, but general experience shows that most Christians go through a progression. As they live out the Christian life and learn to lean into God’s Spirit power, they find it easier to love. Such acts of love are not forced but arise naturally out of hearts that resemble Christ.
The verses today teach radical love. It is easy for us to love our friends and family members who return our love. Loving our enemies is a counter-cultural concept. By nature, we want to smash our enemies, ridicule our enemies, or ignore them until they no longer matter in our lives. Jesus calls us to a higher standard.
God loved us while we were His enemies. He provides a common grace for humanity in that he causes good things to happen to all, whether they are His children or not. In the same way, God calls us to love all. We can only do this through the power of His Holy Spirit.
Make it Real
How do we practice the love that Jesus calls us to? It helps to realize that Christian love does not have to be rooted in emotion. Many times, we show love by our actions. It is not hypocritical to perform a loving act for someone while feeling anything but love in our hearts. At the same time, such actions by themselves are not enough to build a true love in our hearts.
This is especially true when loving people who are our enemies or who do not return our love. We don’t wait to perform acts of love until we ‘feel’ love, but we do them anyway. In the meantime, pray and talk with God about how you feel. Meditate on the great love of Jesus, who left the comforts of Heaven to come live on Earth as a human and die a horrible death on the cross for us, for me, for you. Ponder daily this great love and grace of God and let it seep into your soul.
As Dallas Willard points out in his book, loving your enemies is often a progression for most of us. Maybe you need to soak your soul fully in God’s love and forgiveness for you first. Maybe you need to deal with bitterness and unforgiveness in your heart. Once God’s Spirit heals your soul of such things, then you may be able to fully love your enemies in the way that these verses teach. This doesn’t mean that you should delay trying to obey the teaching but realize that it may take time for your heart to catch up to your actions.
Christian love is a radical love. Even in our increasingly secular age, people watch what you do and how you speak when you identify yourself as a Christian. Acts of love toward others reflects the love of Jesus and glorifies God. Each act of love expands His Kingdom and acts as a powerful witness to unbelievers. Pray today for the Spirit to empower you so you can love like Jesus loved us.
Johnny Spence
ACF Devo Team
End in Prayer
Father, please fill me with your Spirit and let acts of selfless love become the norm for me both towards my friends and towards my enemies. Help me remember daily your great love for me especially as it was shown through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In His holy name I pray, Amen.