Thursday, August 20, 2015
Matthew 5:43ff You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven ...
GOD IS LOVE
After having learned now what true love is, namely, that one is of a mind which says, "I'll gladly give my all for him whom I love," and then again, after hearing that you are, according to God your Father's wish, to have such love and practice love also toward your greatest enemies; yes, when you finally hear that your love toward all men, friends as well as enemies, should be as perfect as God's love, then I can well imagine that you fall prostrate to the ground and cry out, "O, how can anyone be saved?" Yes, how can one be saved?
Is it possible? Yes, it is possible because God is love. By nature we were enemies of God, children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:3). We were enemies of God, yet God exercised the highest and finest type of love toward us. He did not only feel friendly or chummy toward us, His enemies. He was so entirely taken up by us, His enemies, that he sent His Son to save us. His Son who was willing to, and in fact did, sacrifice his all, yes, everything and anything, even his life, in order that we sinners, God's enemies, would be forever happy.
How can we who do not love as we ought, be saved? Flee to God's greatest gift of love towards you. Flee to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior, and there find forgiveness for all of your sins, even for your lack of love. There, at the cross, in faith, share in Christ's fulfillment of the law, for He fulfilled it in your place!
Having shown us the love of God in Christ Jesus, God the Holy Spirit not only works faith in our hearts, but He works in us to make us more and more perfect in loving not only our neighbors and friends, but our enemies as well. Yes, my friends, go to Christ, for without Him you can do nothing pleasing to the Lord your God, and nothing beneficial to any neighbor. But in Him, with His forgiveness, with His perfect love, we seek to fulfill the law of love, for Christ fulfilled that law for us, so that we are perfect in Christ even as our Father in heaven is perfect.
