The Law of Love

And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us. "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Read

Matthew 5:43-48

Think

The previous paragraph on nonresistance/non-retaliation flows easily into the Law of Love. How easy is it to love our friends and hate our enemies. That is natural. We love those who love us. We love those who are like us. But when someone comes along who is different, or who expresses distaste or hatred for us or our beliefs, we naturally revert to hatred for them. That's what you'd expect of anyone, isn't it? If for no other reason than self-preservation, you avoid people who hate you. Yet, Jesus shows us that the true fulfillment of the Law is not just to love our neighbor, but to love our enemy as well. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells us that even our enemy is our neighbor.

But it goes even beyond that. Jesus says that in order to be sons of our Father, we will love and pray for our enemy, for those who would love to see us dead. We are to pray and act for their good.

A true son looks and acts like his father. So let's look at how our Father acts. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

We were enemies of God. But He acted in love toward us. How can we do anything but extend that same love and grace to absolutely everyone we encounter, even those who would chase after us with guns and imprison us for no other reason than our faith? It is easy, even natural, to extend love to our friends and family. It is Christ-like to extend love and grace to absolutely everyone, especially our enemies.

Fortunately, with the last phrase we are brought back to the underlying theme of this entire chapter, achieving perfection. Unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, we will not enter the Kingdom. This is fortunate, because in myself I am incapable of this kind of love. I must depend on God's work in me to even have a shot at life with Him. I must depend on Christ's sacrifice to make my character like God's. So without Christ, I am unable to love this way, but with His love overflowing in my life, my enemies become my friends and I see those who are different from me through an entirely different lens.

Pray

Ask God to help you see people the way He sees them, with tender mercy, kindness, and unconditional love.

Do

Befriend someone you would normally avoid. Get to know them and extend the same love and grace God extends to us.