Matthew 5:38-48

Being merciful is part of a spiritual perfection or completeness. But the Pharisees believed perfection meant following only the letter of the law. And considering the inspired written Word of God as a whole, we are told to imitate our heavenly Father in all His attributes. Therefore, those who are merciful as God is merciful, even toward the evil and the unthankful, are living as God lives. We must be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful. Christ sets the standard by commanding us to love our enemies.

The Jews despised the Romans because the Romans oppressed them, yet Jesus told them to love their enemies. Such words turned many away from Christ. But Jesus was not talking about affection for enemies. He was talking about an act of the will. You cannot fall into this kind of love. It takes conscious effort. Loving your enemies or loving our enemies means acting in their best interests. And we can pray for them and seek ways to help them.

Love means action, and one way to put love into practice is to take the initiative to meet specific needs, and this is easy with people we trust. But love means doing so even for those who dislike us or intend to hurt us.

A merciful and compassionate person overlooks wrongs done to him. He dutifully provides the offender with relief. He does not allow repeated ingratitude to deter him from doing good, even to the unfaithful and the unholy. The reason for this is that mercy is an expression of love. It is a form of love determined by the state or condition of those it is directed toward. Their state is one of suffering and need, yet they may be unworthy or undeserving.

Matthew 5:43-48

Why does this happen? Because the love of God has been poured in our hearts—this self-sacrificing, self-giving, generous, kind, and concerned will to do things for the well-being and benefit of others, beginning with God.

This love that God has shed abroad in our hearts can be so strong that we can love our enemies because we now see them from a different perspective. We begin to look on them the same way God does.

I gave these definitions here for a reason. Because God says here, it is a command that we have to love our enemies. You cannot do that on emotion. The word that he used here for love is agape. The agape love is one in which the will—the mind—dominates, not the heart, not the emotions, because if we followed what would be natural in dealing with our enemy, there would be feelings of irritation, anger, and antagonism. We would want to strike out against that person, we would want to retaliate.

Notice he says here, in verse 44, “Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” This is often the first step towards getting one's will under control—to pray for the person. Go into the presence of God and pray for them, and out of that fellowship hopefully will come the right attitude toward the other person. That will help to turn our mind back toward the right feelings for that person.

Matthew 5:43-45

Under the New Covenant—not anymore under the Old—Jesus raises the bar for us under His law. He is talking in the spirit of the command to love one's neighbor. It has to extend not just to the neighbors that we are at peace with, but the neighbors that we are at war with. It even extends to one's enemy.

Matthew 5:43-44

You know how the feelings are: "I'm going to get even. I'm going to get the better of him." But Jesus said, "No. Be so generous and sacrificing that you will bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you." Now, look at this qualification.

Matthew 5:44-45

God is normally kind, merciful, and patient to everybody. That is the way He acts. That is His modus operandi. He is a Being who is full of patience, full of mercy, full of grace.