“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the 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? Even the tax collectors do the same, don’t they? And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do? Even the Gentiles do the same, don’t they? So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” —Matthew 5:43–48
God’s love extends to all people and as His children, we are to be a channel through which His love freely flows to others. We would do well to remember the mercy and love God demonstrated to us while we were yet sinners without strength, feeble and impious.
Paul tells us:
“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” —Romans 5:6–8
John adds:
“We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. But whoever has the world’s possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.” —1 John 3:16–18
We are to be bound in love to others. We are not to live simply according to our natural affections and inclinations in our spiritual life. Our likes and dislikes of others must not rule our Christian life. God has made all people who dwell on the face of this earth of one blood—all are human beings. What more than that are we?
“For who concedes you any superiority? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you did not?” —1 Corinthians 4:7
We are to seek to please our Master. In pleasing Him we love those He came to die for. Others may spurn our love, but Jesus will never spurn it. Our love is a sweet-smelling sacrifice to Him, acceptable and pleasing. In loving our neighbors, we are following in His footsteps. He is our supreme example and as His disciples, we too are to deliberately identify with God’s interest in others. John tells us:
“I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” —John 13:34–35
Just as God dispenses His gifts of common goodness as in the sun and the rain on both the just and unjust as an amazing demonstration of His patience and kindness, so too we are to do good indiscriminately. Sometimes the greatest deeds of the kingdom of God are acts of service and kindness done that perhaps others consider meaningless and unworthy of their talents as they carry less recognition and less glory. As God’s children, we are called to live above the ordinary ways of this world. That’s how we bring Jesus to others! We are to treat each other as we ourselves would want to be treated: with kindness and mercy and love. And only Jesus can make us like Him.
Become More
“I love Him because He first loved me. His goodness and mercy and compassion to me are new every day. And my assurance is lodged in these aspects of His character. My trust is in His love for me as His own. My serenity has as its basis an implicit, unshakable reliance on His ability to do the right thing, the best thing in any given situation. This to me is the supreme portrait of my Shepherd. Continually there flows out to me His goodness and His mercy, which even though I do not deserve them, come unremittingly from their source of supply—His own great heart of love.” —Phillip Keller
Further Reflections
“Love never fails.” —1 Corinthians 13:8
“Just as God’s goodness and mercy flow to me all the days of my life, so goodness and mercy should follow me, should be left behind me, as a legacy to others, wherever I may go.” —Phillip Keller
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” —1 John 4:7–11