Latest / Reformed Thinking / Perfect Love for Enemies: Reflecting the Father’s Character (Matthew 5:43–48)

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Perfect Love for Enemies: Reflecting the Father’s Character (Matthew 5:43–48) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the Dee Dive where we
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take your source material and really just cut to the core of
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critical theological and historical concepts.
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We try to extract the knowledge you need with the facts and
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maybe just enough wit to keep you hooked.
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Today we are wrestling with what is, I think, maybe the most
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difficult and radical command Jesus gives in the entire Sermon
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on the Mount. It's really the cornerstone of
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the Kingdom ethic. We're in Matthew 5, specifically
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verses 43 through 48, where Jesus demands something that is
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truly staggering. Yeah, love your enemies and pray
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for those who persecute. You.
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That's the one. And if we're being honest, our
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first human instinct, My first instinct when I'm faced with
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opposition or slander is, well, it's resentment.
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It's that impulse toward getting even, or at the very least, just
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cold avoidance. This passage speaks directly
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into that pattern, declaring the Kingdom living operates on a
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standard that is completely alien to our natural, you know,
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born intuition. It is, and the tension is
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palpable. How can God ask for a form of
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love that is so costly, so demanding, that it seems to fly
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in the face of self preservation?
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And what does this demand reveal not just about Our Calling, but
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about God's own essential nature?
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You, our listeners, shared an excellent stack of sources on
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this, and our deep Dive is customized to unpack that
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material. So our mission today is clear.
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We're going to be charting the journey from a human failure to
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divine provision. We'll first dissect how humanity
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typically corrupts this command. Then we'll move to God's own
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impartial character as the perfect model, what we call
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common grace. And then, most critically, we
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have to analyze how this seemingly impossible standard
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functions within the structure of Reformed thought, how it acts
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as both a sharp mirror that exposes our sin and at the same
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time a definitive map that guides our sanctification.
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We have to answer that central question for you.
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What is the more, what is the more that the Kingdom ethic
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demands compared to the world's comfortable reciprocal standard?
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Right, because if our conduct looks identical to that of an
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unbeliever, then we've fundamentally misunderstood what
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it means to be a son of the father.
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We're going to tackle this using the lens of soteriology, seeing
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how the crushing pressure of the law drives us to Jesus Christ
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for justification, and then once we're united to Him by faith,
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how it becomes the definitive rule of life for our
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sanctification. So let's unpack this.
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OK, so let's start with a problem that Jesus addresses
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head on in verse 43. He doesn't just invent a new
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ethical system out of thin air. He confronts A corrupted
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existing 1. He quotes what was I guess the
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traditional formula of the day. You shall love your neighbor and
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hate your enemy. And this is where we uncover
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what the source is called, the scribal narrowing of God's
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perfect law. The first part you shall love
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your neighbor. That is a direct, genuine divine
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command. It echoes Leviticus 19.18.
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That's undeniable, eternal truth.
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But the religious leaders of the time, they subtly restricted the
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scope of the term neighbor. Right.
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They took this universal relational term and made it
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exclusive. How did they even justify
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restricting neighbor to 1's fellow Israelite?
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1's own circle? One's own people.
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Well, they did it primarily through interpretation and
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context. In that era, national identity
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and religious purity were they were deeply intertwined.
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Their understanding of neighbor Rhea in the Hebrew was narrowed
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through this exclusionary zealotry.
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They argued that anyone outside the covenant community, anyone
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who might tempt them to impurity, was fundamentally
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outside the scope of love. And this was often fueled by a
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strong sense of national expectation and, frankly, pride.
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So the problem wasn't that they failed to quote Scripture, but
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that they failed to quote it generously.
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They twisted the spirit of the lie into a tribal ethic.
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Absolutely. And this leads to the most
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startling inside of this whole section, one that often
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surprises people. The second part of that formula
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and hate your enemy is not a divine command.
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It's not in there. It appears nowhere in the Old
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Testament as an explicit law from God.
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This was a purely human inference that the scribes had
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elevated to the level of divine mandate.
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A human inference, but one that probably felt completely
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righteous to them, I imagine. Oh, for sure.
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If God commanded love only for those inside the circle, it just
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logically followed in their minds that hostility toward
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those outside, you know, Gentile oppressors, Samaritans, anyone
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who threatened the covenant was not just permitted but
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necessary, even pious. Exactly.
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They were effectively baptizing their own prejudice.
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They took their natural human instinct for selective love and
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vengeance, dressed it up in the garb of piety, and gave it the
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authority of God's law. The result was this deeply
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comfortable, self flattering tribal ethic that justified
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selective love and prejudice. It allowed them to feel morally
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superior while only offering kindness to people who already
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reciprocated. It which sounds like a standard
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operating procedure for humanity, past and present.
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It really does. We instinctively narrow God's
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vast, uncompromising laws down to something we think we can
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manage, something that confirms our existing social loyalties.
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And Jesus just completely demolishes this comfortable
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standard. He defines the utter inadequacy
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of this natural human reciprocity, and he uses
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examples that would have shocked and offended his listeners, tax
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collectors and Gentiles. Why those two groups
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specifically? What made them the lowest common
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denominator of ethical behavior in the eyes of a 1st century
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Jew? Well, the comparison is
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deliberately scathing. Tax collectors were viewed with
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utter contempt. They were Jewish collaborators,
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notorious sinners who worked for the Roman occupiers, betraying
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their own people by extracting taxes, often way more than
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required for their own personal profit.
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So they were the personification of corruption and national
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betrayal. Absolutely, and Jesus says if
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you only love those who love you, what reward do you have?
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Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
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That comparisons and cuts deep because he's placing the most
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esteemed religious scholars of the day on the same moral
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footing as the lowest, most reviled members of society.
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Wow. He's using them to define the
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baseline of natural human conduct.
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Yes, natural human love, fueled only by instinct, is
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transactional. If a tax collector loves his
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business partner or his family, it's because they benefit him.
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They reciprocate his affection. It requires no moral fortitude
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and certainly 0 grace. And the same concept applies to
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the Gentiles, the unbelievers. Yeah, Jesus asks if disciples
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greet only your brothers, are they doing anything special?
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Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
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Right. And that greeting Shalom in that
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culture wasn't just a casual wave.
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It was an expression of welcome, of favor, of mutual recognition.
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Limiting that expression of favor to 1's own immediate group
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is just it's tribal loyalty. It's what every Pagan, every
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unbeliever already practices by default.
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So the point is that this reciprocal tribal love requires
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no divine intervention. It's a comfortable, self
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referential love, and critically, it provides 0
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evidence of genuine discipleship or transformation.
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If your love only extends as far as your personal gain or your
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comfort zone, you're providing no visible proof that you belong
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to the Kingdom. And that is why Jesus repeatedly
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asks what more believers are doing.
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If you restrict favor to your friends, you have no special
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commendation from God. You're just behaving according
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to the instincts of fallen humanity.
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Instincts like resentment, cold avoidance, fantasies of
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vengeance, All things that are so far removed from the holiness
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of the Father. So the Kingdom ethic has to
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demand something qualitatively different.
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It must. And the only place to find that
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qualitative, relatively different standard, the only
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place to find a love that shatters the boundaries of
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reciprocity, is in the character of God himself.
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And that's exactly where Jesus goes next.
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That transition in Matthew 5 is beautiful.
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Jesus doesn't just issue this crushing moral challenge and
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leave us exposed in our failure. He immediately grounds the
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ethical command in the very nature of God the Father.
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He says the standard is given so that you may be sons of your
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Father who is in heaven. This is a statement about
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lineage. It's a profound declaration of
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family likeness. Sons are required to reflect the
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Father's attributes. If you claim to belong to the
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Heavenly Father, your conduct must display the specific
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counterintuitive likeness, the love of enemies.
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And to prevent this from just being some abstract concept,
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Jesus immediately points to observable, concrete actions
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that the Father takes every single day.
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The famous analogy the sun and the rain.
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These are two provisions that, when you really stop and think
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about them, demonstrate God's impartial nature in the most
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straightforward way possible possible.
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Yeah, he provides the clearest example of his father's
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impartiality. He makes his sunrise on the evil
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and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
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And we tend to overlook this because we live in a post
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industrial society. But for an agrarian people,
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sunlight and rain are not trivial things.
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Not at all. They're essential blessings, the
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very difference between sustenance and starvation.
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Exactly, and God dispenses these life giving gifts, and it's
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emphasized by the possessive term His Son and His reign
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without any moral discrimination whatsoever.
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This indiscriminate distribution, this is the core
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definition of what we call common grace it.
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Is it is God's non saving kindness that sustains and
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benefits all people without regard for their moral standing
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or their state of rebellion? Both those who actively defy
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Him, the evil and the unjust, and those who fear Him, enjoy
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these basic provisions necessary for life, for health and for
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prosperity. So common grace is the divine
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blueprint for enemy love in action.
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It is God performing good works toward people who are actively
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His enemies. It proves that the Father's
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goodness operates outside the boundaries of human
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transactional reciprocity. That's right, If the Father
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allows his Son to warm and his reign to water the fields of the
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person who is actively trying to persecute his children, then the
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Christians love must also extend kindness and genuine goodwill to
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that same adversary. We are commanded to reflect this
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divine practice of indiscriminate generosity.
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This raises a really important question, though.
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If God is so generous, does this mean he is, I don't know,
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sentimental or permissive? Does this common grace somehow
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cancel out His Holiness or His Justice?
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Absolutely not, and we have to clarify the nature of this
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impartial love. It is a holy love that does good
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to enemies, but it does not endorse their wickedness.
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The Westminster Confession speaks of God's patience.
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This generosity is precisely what highlights the depth of the
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ingratitude and rebellion of the wicked.
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His kindness is meant to lead to repentance, and when it doesn't,
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that patience magnifies the righteousness of his eventual
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certain judgement. So God's goodness toward the
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unjust is a reflection of his character, not a compromise of
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his justice. And the imitation required of us
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isn't a fuzzy feeling, but an imitation of this act of
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indiscriminate generosity and concrete action.
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That's the key take away here. The Father's character sets the
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absolute standard for Kingdom conduct.
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We are called to imitate the specific attribute, the refusal
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to confine kindness only to those who treat us well, moving
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past reciprocity and toward generosity even to those who
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have wronged us. We are acting as sons of the
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Father when we do so. OK, which brings us to the end
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of that section, verse 48. Yes, this soaring discussion of
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the Father's impartial love culminates immediately in one of
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the most comprehensive and ethically demanding sentences in
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the entire New Testament, Matthew 5.48.
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You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is
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perfect. This word?
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Perfect. It just sounds terrifyingly
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high. It summarizes the entire ethical
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requirement of the Sermon on the Mount, which is already
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established, that internal anger is murder and lust is adultery.
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Now we're told we must be perfect like God.
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I mean, how do we even begin to approach this standard?
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We have to 1st define the Greek term to Laos.
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It's often poorly translated as a static abstract ideal, but
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Talayos means completeness or wholeness or maturity, and
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because Jesus uses the word, therefore he's linking it
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directly to the example he just gave of the sun and the rain.
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So the meaning is contextualized.
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So completeness is defined specifically as the completeness
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of love. Precisely.
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Talayos in this passage signifies an undivided,
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comprehensive love. It means that your love must be
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whole. It can't be compartmentalized
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into friend love and enemy hatred.
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It has to specifically reflect the Father's impartial goodness
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toward all people. The standard is the very
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character of God. The bar is set at absolute
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holiness and comprehensive love. And this realization, it
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immediately forces us to confront the laws, theological
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function in reform doctrine. This is the first use of the
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law, the mirror function. Yes, exactly.
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The law is given to expose sin. When this standard of
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comprehensive, impartial perfection is held up as a
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divine mirror, what do we see? We see our total abysmal failure
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to meet it. Our natural inclination, as we
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talked about in Section 1, is always to narrow the command to
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practice tribal love, to restrict kindness to our
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manageable circle. So the demand strips away any
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claim to self righteousness. I mean, we might successfully
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refrain from adultery or murder, but who among us has perfectly
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and continually loved their enemies without ever nursing a
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grudge or wishing for revenge? No one.
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No one. The law does its job perfectly.
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It brings the knowledge of sin. It demonstrates that our natural
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efforts and our moral resolve are utterly insufficient to
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achieve this divine perfection. The distance between our
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selective self interested love and the Father's indiscriminate
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love is, well, it's infinite. And if the standard is
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perfection, then our failure is catastrophic.
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This should drive us to utter despair because we know we can
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never meet Matthew 5.48 through sheer willpower.
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And that is exactly where the law is designed to drive us to
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Christ. The crushing demand of the law
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doesn't produce despair in the believer, but reliance upon the
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only One who perfectly fulfills the command.
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Jesus Christ is the only one who lived out the perfection the
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taleos demanded. Here He is the exact image of
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the Father who embodied enemy love to the uttermost.
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The sources you shared confirm that this connects directly to
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the core of our salvation or soteriology, particularly
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regarding Christ's obedience. Yes, Christ's perfect obedience
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to this law has a dual significance for the believer.
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It covers both the demands of the law and the penalty for our
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transgression of it. OK, let's break that down.
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Let's start with justification. This idea of credited
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perfection. Justification is entirely
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dependent on Christ's obedience. We often separate His obedience
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into two aspects. His act of obedience refers to
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His perfect lifelong fulfillment of every aspect of the law,
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including the comprehensive ethical standards laid out in
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the Sermon on the Mount and this command to love enemies.
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So he was the only human being who never once practiced
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selective love. He consistently demonstrated the
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Father's impartial goodness. Exactly.
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And that perfection, that perfect comprehensive love
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required by Matthew 5.48 is imputed.
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We're credited to us by God when we trust in Him.
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It's the finished work credited to the believer.
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So we are counted, righteous and clothed in the perfection of the
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sun. Right, the impossible standard
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is met on our behalf, and we stand before God not based on
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our imperfect selective love, but based on Christ's flawless,
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impartial love. And this frees us completely
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from the pressure of achieving Matthew 5.48 to earn God's
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favor. We already possessed the
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perfection of the sun. And then there's the aspect of
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atonement. This relates to Christ's passive
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obedience, his suffering and death.
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Christ bears the legal penalty for our failure to meet the
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standard, our inability to love perfectly, our natural
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inclination toward tribalism, our resentment, our fantasies of
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revenge. These are sins that deserve
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divine wrath. Christ absorbs the penalty
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deserved by that very lovelessness on the cross.
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So the crushing demand of the law is fulfilled not just by
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Christ's perfect life being credited to us, but by his death
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absorbing the consequence of our imperfect lives.
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The law is both perfectly obeyed and its penalty entirely
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satisfied. Which means the standard of
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perfection never disappears. But because it's fulfilled for
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us, the law gets repurposed. It ceases to be a weapon of
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condemnation and becomes a guide for a life that is already
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redeemed. And that repurposing is what we
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know in our tradition as the third use of the law, the map
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function, for those who are united to Christ through faith.
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The same law that previously condemned us now becomes the
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guide or the rule of life for our ongoing transformation,
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which is sanctification. Precisely.
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The command to love enemies isn't something Christ did so we
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don't have to. It's something He did so we can
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finally begin to do it ourselves, progressively, by His
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Spirit. And this is all predicated on
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the New Covenant promise. God writes His law not on stone
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tablets, but on our hearts. He gives us a new disposition
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and the Holy Spirit to empower us.
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OK. So if we are moving from passive
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justification to active pursuit, we have to define this love in
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action. We already established this is
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not a sentimental love. What kind of love is required
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here? The New Testament uses the
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specific term agapar, and it's so important to distinguish this
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from other Greek words for love, like filia, which signifies
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friendship or familial affection, or arrows, which
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relates to desire or passion. Agapa is distinct because it is
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primarily A deliberate, determined action of the will
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seeking the good of the other person, regardless of their
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worthiness or their feelings toward us or the personal cost
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involved. So in this specific context,
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agapash means responding to real opposition, actual persecution,
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actual slander, real offense, with a pursuit of the enemy's
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genuine good. It's costly love.
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It is the definition of costly love.
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The command requires that we move beyond basic human goodwill
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and into the realm of concrete, intercessory love.
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And Jesus gives us the most tangible, explicit test of this
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love in the entire passage. Pray for those who persecute
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you. This action prayer is a game
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changer. It demands that we actively
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engage our enemies before God with petitions, not for their
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destruction or punishment, but for their blessing and
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ultimately their repentance and salvation in Christ.
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Prayer is a spiritual act that necessitates the surrender of
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vengeance. When you kneel and sincerely ask
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God to bless the person who harmed you, you are handing over
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the right to retaliation to the sovereign justice of God.
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This active process forbids the nursing of grudges, the constant
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rehearsing of grievances, or, you know, cherishing fantasies
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of vindication. It forces us to root out the
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bitterness in our own hearts. Right.
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If we were simply told to feel better about our enemies, that
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would be impossible. But we are commanded to do
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something concrete to intercede for them, which then shapes our
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heart and our feelings. It reverses the natural order of
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resentment. And this isn't just an abstract
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ideal. It is the ultimate pattern set
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by Christ himself. We see it on the cross.
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Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
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And the immediate imitation by the early church, like Stephen
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praying for for those who were stoning him, asking God not to
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hold the sin against them. That kind of action is the
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visible mark of the Holy Spirit's work, making the love
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truly cruciform, taking the shape of the cross.
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That is the new life the Spirit produces.
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The sanctified life is 1 characterized by the fruit of
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the Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, kindness, Goodness, which
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provide the very capacity necessary for practicing agapach
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love toward those who oppose us. It is living out the reality of
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the New Covenant. The Law is written on our
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hearts, giving us the desire and the ability to pursue this
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impossible standard, albeit imperfectly and progressively.
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And we always have to circle back to that necessary
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distinction. We're not earning anything by
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this love, but demonstrating that we are already justified
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and clothed in Christ perfection.
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It's a response of gratitude, not a performance for merit.
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Exactly so. That brings us to the practical
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implications. This command to love enemies is
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searching precisely because it confronts the sin that clings so
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closely to us, the instinctive pull towards self indication,
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the quiet satisfaction in another's misfortune, the
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resentment that poisons our inner lives.
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The sources direct us to consider three specific areas
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where this ethic demands concrete conduct, our personal
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life, our church life, and our public witness.
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Let's start personally, if we are genuinely pursuing our
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enemies, good, especially those who have wounded us or slandered
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us. What are the concrete
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disciplines required in our daily conduct?
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It begins with intense discipline over the inner life,
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especially our thought life. We have to guard our speech from
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retaliation and from gossip. The sources make it clear that
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enemy love means actively refusing to repay insult with
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insult. When we receive slander, our
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response must be filtered through grace, not malice.
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And this is where we see the battle waged against pride.
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Seeking opportunities to do genuine good for an adversary.
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A small act of goodwill, a concrete demonstration of
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kindness that often feels like a total loss of self indication.
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It feels humiliating to be kind to someone who deserves our
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anger. That feeling is the death of
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pride, and it's essential. True agapash demands that we
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choose actions that benefit the offender even when they cannot
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or will not reciprocate. We are imitating God who doesn't
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demand repayment for the sun or the rain.
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This means, as an ongoing discipline, when we feel the
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urge to rehearse a grievance or mentally plan a cutting retort,
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we have to instead convert that impulse into intercessory prayer
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for that person. And this brings us back to the
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sheer need for grace. If this standard requires the
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death of pride and the conversion of resentment into
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prayer, it can't be met by just trying harder.
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It requires constant day-to-day dependence on the Holy Spirit
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and rooting oneself in the means of grace, the Word, the
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sacraments, and prayer. We need God to supply the
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capacity for the supernatural love.
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OK, moving out to implications for church life, If the standard
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is to love external enemies and persecutors, then there is
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absolutely 0 excuse for allowing coldness, resentment,
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bitterness, or unresolved conflict to fester within the
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fellowship of believers. Right.
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This exposes the great hypocrisy of a church that might
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vigorously contend for the truth against outsiders, but
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internally tolerates fractured relationships and quiet feuds
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between members. The standard is even higher for
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fellow believers. Enemy love must be practiced
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internally toward the difficult fellow member, the brother or
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sister who has wounded us, or the one whose personality is
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simply grating. The Church has to make a genuine
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peacemating and reconciliation central features of its life.
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And our sources remind us that this includes the challenging
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context of church discipline. When discipline is necessary, it
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must be governed by love, not retribution, but the sincere aim
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of restoration and spiritual good for the offending party.
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The consistency of the Father's impartiality dictates the
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behavior of his family. Just as the Father sends rain on
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the just and the unjust, the Church must at the very least
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extend patient forbearance and forgiveness to one another,
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bearing with one another and forgiving one another as we have
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been forgiven in Christ. This is the visible
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manifestation of the family like this within the community.
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Finally, let's consider the public witness of the church,
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especially when facing opposition or persecution, what
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Jesus called those who persecute you.
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This ethic governs our entire public posture.
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The natural human response to public opposition is often to
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withdraw into bitterness or to engage in militant retaliation,
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frequently adopting the world's most aggressive rhetorical
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tactics. The digital sphere makes this
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temptation acute. When we are publicly slandered
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or opposed for our beliefs, the immediate impulse is to use
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sarcasm, outrage, or to caricature and dehumanize the
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opponent. Enemy love absolutely requires
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the refusal of those tactics. It demands that even when
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contending earnestly for the faith which we are commanded to
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do, the manner of our engagement must be governed by love.
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We cannot fight for God's truth using the devil's tactics.
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This means that every argument, every defense, must be laced
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with a genuine, visible desire for the salvation and ultimate
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good of the opponent. The posture required is one that
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is truthful and firm in conviction, yet tender and
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entirely free from malice or hatred.
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We must never portray our opponents as mere political
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obstacles, but as human beings made in God's image, subject to
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the common race of the Father, and in desperate need of the
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Savior. This posture answers Jesus's
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central challenge. It demonstrates the more we are
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doing compared to the world which only knows how to fight
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fire with fire. This ensures that our ethics,
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like our theology, remain centered on the cross.
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It is a supernatural love achievable only through the
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indwelling spirit, yet demanded of every believer.
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So to summarize this thorough deep dive into Matthew 5.4348,
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we established that human love is fundamentally transactional
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and tribal, a tax collector love which falls far short of God's
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requirement. And we saw the Kingdom.
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Love is radically different. It's modeled by the Father's
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indiscriminate generosity through common grace,
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specifically demonstrated by the rising of the sun and the
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falling of the rain on all people, regardless of their
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moral standing. This command to love enemies is
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the display of the family likeness defining the
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completeness and wholeness of love.
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That telayos are perfection required of those who are truly
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sons of the Father. And this crushing standard is
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not a means to merit. Rather, it drives us to Christ,
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who's perfect impartial obedience is credited to us in
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justification, and whose spirit enables us to progressively
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pursue the same love and sanctification.
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And this is the immense grace of the Gospel.
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The impossible standard of Matthew 5.48 forces us to
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confront our total failure. Yet we are simultaneously
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reconciled to God because Christ's perfect love is fully
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credited to us. We are freed from the necessity
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of earning God's favor by our selective love.
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We are already clothed in the perfection of the Son.
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So here is the final thought for you to consider this week as you
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go about your life. If Christ's already credited
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perfection frees you from despair over your failure to
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perfectly love, how does that liberation change the way you
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approach those who intentionally slander or harm you this week?
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If you are already perfect in Christ, how does that radical
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security enable you to offer indiscriminate generosity and
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forgiveness toward others who can never repay you?
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The love that goes beyond reciprocity, the costly love of
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the enemy, is the clearest, most visible echo of the Father's
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perfect, indiscriminate grace in the world.
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We encourage you to continue meditating on this radical ethic
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of the Kingdom. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive.