{"id":9196,"date":"2022-07-27T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=9196"},"modified":"2022-07-27T07:04:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T21:04:28","slug":"the-christian-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/07\/27\/the-christian-more\/","title":{"rendered":"The Christian “More”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 5:45b-48\u00a045<\/sup>because he causes his sun to rise upon the wicked and good, and he causes the rain upon the righteous and unrighteous.\u00a0<\/em>4<\/em>6<\/sup>For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same thing? <\/i>47<\/sup>And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles do the same thing? <\/i>48<\/sup>Therefore, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In these verses, Jesus gives his illustration of his principle about loving and praying for one’s enemies. The key point is that God’s love provides the model for how we should respond to others. God’s love is impartial because everyone gets it. Verse 45b is a reference to God’s providential grace.\u00a0Sun and rain are necessary for life. Both the good and bad receive the sun and rain and so receive life from God. If God only loved the righteous, none of us would be here today.\u00a0God loves everyone the same, both sinners and saints. God does not show preferences.<\/p>\n

We must love like God. The problem is that we are not capable of loving on our own. Verses 46-47 show that our human love is usually tainted with the love of self and what we can get out of the situation.\u00a0Even sinners can love, but it will not be the type of love that God wants people to have. Human nature is to love those who return love. The old saying captures it well:\u00a0You scratch my back, I\u2019ll scratch yours. We look for what we can get out of the relationship. Jesus’ rhetorical questions challenge the idea of loving for a reward.\u00a0Even the highest human love is influenced by self-interest.\u00a0If we love like this, we are no better than the swindling tax collectors or unbelieving pagans.<\/p>\n

The Christian must do more than the world around us.\u00a0 We must rise above politics and even patriotism, and love not only our friends, neighbors, state, and country, but even love our enemies.\u00a0 We cannot live at the world\u2019s level; we must go beyond.\u00a0This \u201cmore\u201d can only come through Jesus. It is the love shown on the cross.\u00a0There must be something that sets disciples apart from the world. Our love must surpass the world\u2019s love.\u00a0To love those who love us is no challenge.\u00a0To love those who hate us is the radical call of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

What is this type of love like? It is not based on friendship or what we can get out of the situation but on what we can put into it. It is self-less, like the love modeled on the cross. The reward is that we are called the children of God (1 John 4:7-12). It is not easy to love with this love. It will be\u00a0one of the hardest things we do in this life.\u00a0It is easy to talk about, but it is another thing to actually live it out.\u00a0It is impossible for us to love without the grace of God filling us and flowing through us.\u00a0It is the love of Christ that took him to the cross. The cross is the only way we will ever be able to love our enemies.<\/p>\n

God sets the standard and provides the strength. As\u00a01 John 4:19 states, \u201cWe love because he first loved us.\u201d Verse 48 indicates that\u00a0God\u2019s people must imitate God. The word\u00a0perfect<\/em> (teleioi<\/em>) is theologically significant in the New Testament and indicates reaching one’s goal or purpose. We have been created in God’s image, and at the focus of this image is love (Ephesians 5:1-2). Perfect love means to\u00a0love like God, who loves both the righteous and unrighteous. God\u2019s love is inclusive of all. \u00a0Only when we have God\u2019s love within us can we love our enemy.\u00a0How we love others is a direct reflection of the condition of our heart. Love has no limits to how far it will go.\u00a0No matter how far we are on our journey, there is always more we can aim for.<\/p>\n

The only way to love others is to die to self.\u00a0 There is no way we can love our enemy unless we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus.\u00a0The way of the cross is the way of love.\u00a0Loving our enemies is an opportunity for us to grow spiritually.\u00a0 It is not hard to love those we like.\u00a0 It is a test of our faith to love those who give nothing back to us.\u00a0The call to discipleship is an invitation to live out God\u2019s perfect love in our lives.\u00a0What would be the result if Christians radically obeyed Jesus\u2019 command?<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Matthew 5:45b-48\u00a045because he causes his sun to rise upon the wicked and good, and he causes the rain upon the righteous and unrighteous.\u00a046For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same thing? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what more are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9196"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9235,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196\/revisions\/9235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}