Love Like His

Love like His

Read: Matthew 5:43-48

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:44-45

“We are not merely to serve Christ, we are to be like Him.”

—Derek Copley

IN WORD The imperative of this passage is well-known, often from very early in our discipleship. We are to love our enemies. But what about the “why” of this verse? It is often left out of the discussion. We are to love our enemies and pray for them because we are to be sons of our Father. Does this mean we are saved by our ability to love, and therefore by works? Other passages of Scripture make it clear that this is not so—our salvation is by grace through faith alone. So how might we be children of God by our love in the face of hate? Because that is what God is like. God loves His enemies, and He intercedes for those who persecute Him. By this act of loving and praying for our enemies, we become “chips off the old block.” We grow into conformity with God.

IN DEED This raises a larger issue for us. Not only in loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us are we to be like God—children conformed to His image. We are to be like Him in all character issues. Whom God loves, we are also to love. Those impurities in ourselves that God despises, we are also to despise. Whom God seeks for His own, we are also to seek. His way is to become our way.

Study God’s character in Scripture. Examine His tenderness and compassion, His holiness, His hatred of evil, His mercy, and His love. He calls us to be like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 5:1; 1 Peter 1:16). As we see Him as our standard, let us also see the radical transformation that must take place in us as we, His children, grow to be like Him.