This blog post is adapted from the sermon: A Love That Shows God’s Love For All People to All People
Pastor’s Sermon Notes on Matthew 5:43-48
In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus delivers one of his most challenging teachings. He addresses a distorted interpretation of God’s law and calls his followers to a higher standard of love—one that extends even to our enemies.
How Did Religious Leaders Distort God’s Command to Love?
Jesus begins by pointing out a common teaching of his day: “You have heard the law that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” The first part comes directly from Leviticus 19:18, which instructs God’s people to “love your neighbor as yourself.” However, the second part—”hate your enemy”—appears nowhere in Scripture.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ time had distorted God’s command in three significant ways:
- They included just enough truth to make their teaching believable
- They omitted the standard of love (“as yourself”)
- They added to Scripture by including “hate your enemy”
This distortion allowed them to limit their love to those who were like them—fellow Jews, those who benefited them, or those who shared their views. Their teaching even suggested that if a Jewish man saw a Gentile drowning, he had no obligation to help because the person wasn’t Jewish.
What Does God’s Love Really Look Like?
Jesus corrects this distortion by pointing to God’s character. He says, “But I say, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.” This isn’t a new teaching but a return to God’s original intent.
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s design for love included meeting the needs of both friends and enemies:
- In Deuteronomy 22:1-4, God instructs His people to help their neighbors by returning lost animals and assisting when their animals are injured.
- In Exodus 23:4-5, God extends this same care to enemies: “If you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey that has strayed away, take it back to its owner.”
God’s love extends to all people—both those who love Him and those who reject Him. As Jesus points out, “He gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and unjust alike.”
Why Should We Love Our Enemies?
Jesus gives several compelling reasons why we should love our enemies:
It reflects our true identity as God’s children
“In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” When we love our enemies, we demonstrate our family resemblance to God. We show that we belong to Him.
It distinguishes us from the world
“If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.” Loving only those who love us doesn’t set us apart; it’s a natural response. Even the most despised members of society (tax collectors in Jesus’ day) could manage that level of love.
It leads us toward spiritual maturity
“But you are to be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The word “perfect” here refers to completeness or maturity. As we love like God loves, we grow more like Him. In the parallel passage in Luke 6:36, Jesus says, “Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.”
How Do We Begin to Love Our Enemies?
Loving our enemies begins with prayer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who opposed the Nazis and was eventually executed in a concentration camp, wrote: “Through the medium of prayer, we go to our enemy’s side, we stand by his side, and we plead for him to God.”
Prayer is the starting point because it changes our hearts toward those who have hurt us. As Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayer is the forerunner of mercy.” When we pray for our enemies, God’s Spirit ministers to our spirit, helping us become more like Christ toward them.
We’ve seen powerful examples of this kind of love:
- In 2015, after Dylann Roof killed nine people in an African American church, the daughter of one victim said, “I’ll never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you, and I have mercy on your soul.”
- Another family member visited Roof’s mother and embraced her, demonstrating Christ’s love to both sides of the tragedy.
Life Application
This week, take these practical steps to love like Jesus commands:
- Identify who’s hard to love in your life right now. Whose name brings frustration instead of compassion when you hear it?
- Commit to praying for that person every day this week. Don’t pray for God to change them (though He might); pray for God to give them mercy and blessing.
- Ask yourself: “How might God want to use this difficult relationship to make me more like Jesus?”
- Consider one tangible way you could show love to this person, even if they never know about it or respond positively.
When we love our enemies, we mirror God’s love for all people to all people. This radical love doesn’t minimize our hurt or brush off legitimate pain. Instead, it calls us to a higher way—absorbing the cost of forgiveness just as Christ absorbed the cost of our sin.
As you reflect on this teaching, ask yourself: What would change in my relationships if I truly loved like my heavenly Father loves? What grudge am I holding that needs to be released through prayer? How might God’s mercy flow through me to someone who doesn’t deserve it—just as His mercy flowed to me when I didn’t deserve it?
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