WATCHWORD:
43 “There is a saying, ‘Love your friends and hate your enemies.’ 44 But I say: Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way you will be acting as true sons of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust too. 46 If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even scoundrels do that much. 47 If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even the heathen do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48
Meditation:
Good Being
This passage from Matthew is part of the Sermon on the Mount, a series of lessons by Jesus that would come to shape the lives of the disciples and their ministry. In like manner, these lessons are intended to shape our lives as Christians, followers of Christ, the Lord.
This particular lesson, with love your enemies at its core, is hard to grasp. But when He completes this lesson and tells us that we are to be perfect, even as our father in heaven is perfect, now we have a problem. All our lives we have been taught that only God is perfect, and now being instructed by our Lord that we also are to be perfect. Well! How do we even get our mental arms around that thought, let alone “be perfect“?
I believe that everyone of us have acquaintances that are just plain hard to love. Some people we like, others, we don’t. I think what we’re being told is, we cannot let those negative thoughts rule our Christian life. Jesus tells us that if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another, meaning if our commitment is to the Word of God and that’s what dominates our lives, then instead of animosity, we will have fellowship. Even towards those for which we have no affection, whatsoever.
In truth, we’ve heard this lesson from the very beginning of our Christian walk. We’ve heard it with different words, such as ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’, or ‘love others as I have loved you’, and John’s statement that ‘If you have love for one another, then all will know that you are a disciple of Jesus’.
I recall early in my faith walk, a reminder that God loves us, not because we are good, but because God is good. Understanding that unlocks the mystery of ‘being perfect’, for we are asked to be good to all others, therefore, imitating the love we receive from God. Go and do likewise. Perfect love. Amen.
Closing Prayer:
Father,
We praise You for this day and Your purpose for it. This is the day that You have made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it! Father, let the chains of our sins fall off so we may run unhindered after Christ Jesus today and always. Remove the self-condemnation, shame, and guilt we feel when we sin, mess things up, and fall terribly short. Renew us each day, Father God. Restore us on the road to perfection, which will culminate when we meet You in heaven for eternity.
Oh, God! Help us to focus on Your perfection and rely completely on You as we journey through this day. Help us to forgive ourselves alongside others, Father. Enable us to run free and hard in the race You have set for us to run… not for earthly crowns, but the eternal reward and rest of heaven. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
