Love Without Limits

And it also points to God’s perfect love for us, even though we don’t deserve it. There is no reason God should love us, no cause. And so it is with our enemies. There is no cause, but God wants us to do it anyway, to reflect his love. Jesus gives a couple of illustrations from creation to point out how God loves everybody. Jesus notes how the sun shines and the rain pours on the good and the bad indiscriminately. Theologians call this “common grace,” the idea that everyone experiences God’s love. The weather doesn’t discriminate, and we shouldn’t either. We should love equally, both our friend and our enemy.

Jesus says, if you only love those who love you, you’re no better than a publican or tax collector. Tax collectors were Jews who forced their fellow Jews to pay heavy taxes to the occupying Roman government. Their fellow Jews considered them traitors. Interestingly, the fellow who recorded the scripture we’re reading today—Matthew—used to be a tax collector before Jesus called him as a disciple. You can just see him cringing in the crowd as Jesus uses this example. Jesus also mentions the pagans, the unbelievers among them. Jesus says, if you only talk to your own people, you’re no different than any unbeliever out there.

I don’t know if you realize this or not, but Christianity is a radical faith. Jesus calls us to do the impossible: to love the unlovely, to literally love without limits. And this is more than a sentimental Valentine’s Day type of love. Notice the action words Jesus uses; he wants us to pray for and to greet our enemies. The King James version adds “to bless those who curse you, to do good to those who hate you.” The Spirit-filled Life Bible comments, “Love is not a matter of sentiment alone, but practical concern, blessing, prayer, and positive wishes for well-being, extended to friend and enemy alike.”

Listen, folks, this doesn’t come naturally. You need the power of God for this kind of love. And that’s Jesus’ point. Look at his summary conclusion in verse 48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What? We have to be perfect? No chance. I’m not going to make it! The Greek word here for “perfect” is “teleios,” which has the meaning of “complete.” We are complete only in Christ. God alone can help us to love our enemies.

I just finished a seven-week group with Veterans with PTSD using a book on self-forgiveness written by a psychologist named Everett Worthington, Jr. Worthington is a pioneer of forgiveness research and also a committed Christian. In his book, “Moving Forward: Six Steps to Forgiving Yourself and Breaking Free from the Past,” he writes transparently about his own efforts to forgive himself following the suicide of his younger brother.

Listen to what Worthington says about our dependency on God. He writes, “The perfection God wants for us is an unreachable ideal within the span of our earthly life. It is intended not to create despair or striving for the impossible, but to create a goal that only can be pursued in humility by reliance on God” (p. 188). Folks, we must have God’s help in this. There is no other way to do it. You will run out of love if you lean on your own abilities. You need a supernatural agape love flowing from heaven through you to your enemies. It requires much prayer and surrender of our own emotions to the God who wants to bring it about through us, and to show the world a different type of love—a godly love, a heavenly love.