Today's Devotional

April 14, 2005

Subject:  Perfect In Love

Matthew 5:44 - "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Matthew 5:46 - 48 "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Whenever we've heard someone talk about being perfect or mentioning the perfection of Jesus, we probably thought that they were talking about being without sin.  While the principle is true, based on the passage above, you can see that the bible is actually talking about "loving" the way that Christ loved.  That's the perfection that we should strive for.

Here is the method of "love" that we frequently employ.  Someone wrongs us and we pray that God "gets them back."  Now if we look to the cross let us see if that is the perfection of love.  Christ seemed to make an excuse for the people who did wrong to them, saying, "forgive them for they know not what they do."  What do we say?  "He/she knew exactly what they were doing.  They did that on purpose."  And the issue isn't even whether or not they did it on purpose, the command is to "bless them."  Why?  Because we are the representatives/ambassadors of Christ on earth.  

I remember watching a news show once where a man's son was killed by a young gang member in Washington D.C.  After the murderer was apprehended the Father asked the court to allow him to adopt the murderer.  The court agreed and the Father then raised the young boy who had murdered his son as his own.  That's representing Christ on earth.  The world (publicans) can't understand that because the world understands "payback," but they don't understand perfection.  Lets be perfect in love. 

Carlen