Reckless Love
We are to love the world the same unrestricted, complete love of God.
Context:
I. God Desires Us To Love Others
A. Context
I. Our Natural Inclination Is Retaliation
A. The Teaching Of The Age
B. Who are our enemies?
The Pharisees taught that one should love those near and dear to him (Lev. 19:18), but that Israel’s enemies should be hated. The Pharisees thus implied that their hatred was God’s means of judging their enemies.
II. God Desires The Opposite...That We Love
II. God Desires That We Love Like He Loves
II. Human Nature Seeks The Easy Way Out
A. We Like To Take The Easy Way Out
B. God Loves Everybody Always
The Pharisees taught that one should love those near and dear to him (Lev. 19:18), but that Israel’s enemies should be hated. The Pharisees thus implied that their hatred was God’s means of judging their enemies.
People who so love and greet their enemies and pray for their persecutors thus prove themselves to be those, as in v. 9, who are growing in conformity to the likeness of their Heavenly Father (v. 45).
God loves them; He causes His sun to rise on them and He sends rain to produce their crops. Since His love extends to everyone, Israel too should be a channel of His love by loving all.
Whatever emotions may be involved, “love” here refers to “generous, warm, costly self-sacrifice for another’s good.”
“Greet” (v. 47) refers to more than a simple hello, namely, heartfelt “expressions of desire for the other person’s welfare.”
“Perfect” here is better translated as “mature, whole,” i.e., loving without limits (probably reflecting an underlying Aramaic tamim). Jesus is not frustrating his hearers with an unachievable ideal but challenging them to grow in obedience to God’s will—to become more like him. J. Walvoord rightly observes, “While sinless perfection is impossible, godliness, in its biblical concept, is attainable.” But such godliness cannot be comprehensively formulated in a set of rules; the ethics of the sermon are suggestive, not exhaustive. The parallel passage in Luke (6:36) uses synecdoche (the use of a part for the whole) to capture the essence of God’s image in which we are being renewed, namely, mercy (cf. Exod 34:6–7a). Even as God sets higher standards in his new covenant than in the law, he reveals himself as more forgiving of our failures.