At our Bible study this week we looked at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17-48, seeing how the kingdom of God requires radical obedience to the spirit of God’s law and not just the letter. The Pharisees and religious leaders had added many things to the law, but Jesus taught with authority (‘You have heard… but I tell you...’), reminding us that He came to fulfil the law in all God’s intentions.
In this section, Jesus taught on murder, adultery, divorce, taking oaths, taking revenge and loving people, taking us beyond our rules and regulations to the heart (where all actions originate.) He challenged the conditional love we so often show to people and commanded the same unconditional, selfless love that He Himself shows. The Biblical command to love your neighbour (Lev 19:18) did not have the concomitant ‘hate your enemy’ in it, but again, that was the ‘logical’ thing to do. Jesus takes us beyond reason and logic to relationship. While we were still enemies of God, He died for us. (Rom 5:8) We, therefore, following in our Father’s footsteps, must learn to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us, because this reflects our identity as God’s children. Loving only those who love us is simply worldly. We can all do that; it’s easy. But we need God’s love in our lives, a love that is all-encompassing and whole, if we are be true followers of God. Sinless perfection may not be possible in this life, but we are to strive to be mature and complete so that we can reflect God as He is to the world.
