Grace and Space

Mt 5:43-48

Love of enemies: The point of the teaching concerning the love of one’s enemies is perfection: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v 48). What does it mean to be perfect? In Matthew, perfection does not mean being without fault or defect but being righteous, authentic, like God.

God does not separate people. God permits the sun to rise on the bad and the good. God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. If a person is to be perfect, he or she must be like God, who does not segregate or separate or divide people between good and bad; God loves all people.

The righteous person, therefore, loves his or her enemies and prays for his or her persecutors. In so doing, this individual imitates God. There is nothing laudatory about loving those who love you. Sinners, tax collectors, and Jewish apostatizers love each other. There is nothing laudatory in greeting those you love. Pagans and non-believers do as much.

What distinguishes authentic disciples of Jesus from others is their unwillingness to be a source of division. To engage in separatist behavior is wrong and unbecoming a child of God. If the perfect God makes no distinctions, then imperfect disciples who want to be like God can do no less—they must judge no one and love everyone as their heavenly Father has taught them.

In this teaching, Matthew is holding the community to a new standard. The old values, which were based on prohibitions against killing, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and hatred of the enemy, no longer suffice to define relationships under the new law. These teachings, according to Matthew, no longer bind the community together. These old ways of bonding must give way to the law of love, righteousness, and authenticity—the new binding force of the community.