Love... As I Have Been Loved

 

Love Your Enemies – Matthew 5:43-48

Dear Friends, picture the hillside. Jesus has already turned the world upside down with His words—blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful—and now He comes to the hardest command of all.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 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 on 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? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48 ESV)

Jesus doesn’t soften it. He doesn’t add qualifiers. He takes the old rule—love your own, hate the rest—and shatters it. Love your enemies. Pray for the ones who mock you, wound you, persecute you. Not because they deserve it. Because that’s exactly what your Father does.

Every morning the sun climbs the sky for the cruel boss and the kind neighbour alike. Rain falls on the fields of the righteous and the fields of the unjust. God doesn’t withhold common grace from anyone. He doesn’t wait for repentance before He gives breath and bread and another sunrise. That indiscriminate kindness? That’s the perfection Jesus calls us to mirror.

Loving those who love us back? Easy. Even tax collectors manage that. Greeting only our own circle? Nothing special—the Gentiles do it too. But loving the one who despises you, praying blessing over the one who curses you—that’s kingdom strangeness. That’s sonship showing through.

We feel the resistance in our bones, don’t we? The colleague who undermined you, the family member who cut deep, the stranger online who hurls venom, the neighbour who makes life harder just because they can. Our hearts whisper, “They don’t deserve love.” And Jesus says, quietly, firmly: “Neither did you.”

This isn’t about warm feelings or pretending the hurt didn’t happen. It’s about willing good toward them—prayer that God would soften their heart, heal their wounds, draw them near. It’s about refusing to let enmity define us when mercy defines our Father.

Today, pause and ask: Who is your “enemy” right now? Not in some abstract sense, but the real person whose name makes your stomach tighten. What would it look like to pray for them—not against them—today? Not to earn points, not to fix them, but simply because your Father’s sun rises on them too, and you are called to be like Him.

The command ends with the impossible: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We can’t reach that on our own. But every small act of enemy-love is a step toward the perfection He is working in us. Grace upon grace.

Point to Ponder: We don’t love our enemies because they deserve it; we love them because we have been loved when we didn’t deserve it—and because our Father never stops.

Verse to Remember: “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.” (Matthew 5:44-45a ESV)

Question to Consider: This week, name one person who feels like an enemy to you. What one concrete, small act of love or prayer could you offer them—not to change them, but to reflect your Father’s perfect kindness?

Article written by Shaun Fereday, Leader @SFGH Church