6. Love: The Character of Life under God's Reign

 

6. Love: The Character of Life under God's Reign

If God is Father, another question naturally follows:

How should the children of this Father live with one another?

Jesus' answer is one of the most familiar words in his teaching:

Love.

But, as with the words Kingdom, repentance, and Father, the important question is not whether love was a new idea.

It was not.

Love already belonged to Jewish Scripture and tradition. The command to love one's neighbour was deeply rooted in Israel's Scriptures. Jesus therefore does not introduce love into a world that had never heard of it.

Instead, he asks his hearers to see the meaning and extent of love differently.

The familiar word remains.

The vision expands.

From neighbour-love to enemy-love

Jesus' teaching in Matthew reaches a remarkable point:

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

The command is difficult precisely because it moves beyond ordinary reciprocity.

It is natural to love those who love us.

It is natural to greet those who greet us.

It is natural to help those who help us.

But Jesus asks:

What happens when love is not returned?

What happens when the other person is hostile?

What happens when someone has injured us?

What happens when the person standing before us is not a friend but an enemy?

Jesus' answer is not simply:

“Do not hate them.”

It is stronger:

Love them.

And then he adds:

Pray for them.

The historical background of this teaching is complex, and it should not be reduced to the simplistic claim that Judaism taught people to hate their enemies. The command to love one's neighbour was already deeply rooted in Jewish Scripture, and Jewish texts contain diverse approaches to enemies and outsiders. The distinctive force of Jesus' teaching lies in extending love beyond the normal boundaries of reciprocity and grounding it in the character of God.

Why should enemies be loved?

Jesus gives a reason.

God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good.

God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

The argument is striking.

Jesus does not begin with:

“Your enemy deserves your love.”

He begins with:

Look at God.

God's generosity is not restricted to those who deserve it.

Therefore:

Look at the Father.

And then:

Become children of the Father.

This brings us back to the previous section.

The meaning of Fatherhood becomes ethical.

If God is Father, then God's children are called to resemble the Father.

The character of the Father becomes the pattern for the character of the child.

Thus:

Father → Character → Love

And the most difficult test of that love is the person who does not love us.

The test of love

It is easy to love someone who loves us.

There is reciprocity.

I give, and I receive.

I greet, and I am greeted.

I help, and I may reasonably expect help in return.

Jesus deliberately moves beyond this ordinary pattern.

The deeper test of love is what happens when reciprocity disappears.

The test of love is not how we treat those who love us. The deeper test is how we respond to those who do not.

This is why enemy-love belongs at the heart of Jesus' vision.

It prevents love from becoming merely another form of self-interest.

If I love only those who love me, my love can still be understood as an exchange.

Jesus asks for something greater.

Love that gives without first asking what it will receive.

Love is not merely emotion

There is another important point.

In Jesus' teaching, love is not simply a feeling.

To love an enemy does not necessarily mean feeling affection toward that person.

Jesus immediately connects love with action:

Pray for them.

Elsewhere, his teaching repeatedly describes love through concrete acts of mercy, generosity, reconciliation, and care.

This is important because feelings cannot always be commanded.

Actions can be chosen.

A person may still feel anger while deciding not to retaliate.

A person may still experience pain while refusing to seek revenge.

A person may still remember an injustice while choosing not to allow that injustice to determine how they treat others.

Thus, love becomes a way of acting.

It becomes a moral decision.

It becomes a way of being.

Love and the transformation of the self

This reveals something deeper about Jesus' teaching.

Enemy-love is not only about changing the relationship between two people.

It is about changing the person who chooses to love.

Suppose someone injures me.

That injury creates a temptation.

I can allow the injury to shape me.

I can become bitter.

I can become revengeful.

I can begin to treat others according to what has happened to me.

Or I can refuse to allow another person's actions to determine the kind of person I become.

This is one of the deepest dimensions of Jesus' teaching.

What happens to me does not have to determine what I become.

The enemy may determine the situation.

But the enemy does not have to determine my character.

The person who lives under God's reign retains the freedom to respond according to God's character.

This is why enemy-love is so closely related to the Kingdom.

The Kingdom becomes visible

If the Kingdom means that God reigns, then the Kingdom should become visible in the lives of those who acknowledge that reign.

Where God's character becomes visible, God's reign becomes visible.

If God is merciful, mercy becomes a sign of the Kingdom.

If God forgives, forgiveness becomes a sign of the Kingdom.

If God loves beyond reciprocity, such love becomes a sign of the Kingdom.

The Kingdom therefore is not demonstrated only through religious ceremonies or verbal declarations.

It becomes visible in human relationships.

A person forgives.

A person refuses revenge.

A person welcomes the outsider.

A person cares for the vulnerable.

A person prays for an enemy.

In such actions, the character of the King becomes visible.

This prepares the way for Jesus' teaching about righteousness.

“Be perfect as your Father is perfect”

Matthew concludes the passage with the challenging statement:

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This statement should not be isolated from the preceding teaching.

The context is enemy-love.

The Father's “perfection” is expressed in the generosity that extends beyond the boundaries of reciprocity.

The point is therefore not simply flawless performance.

It is becoming complete in the practice of the Father's kind of love.

This is why some translations and interpretations understand the statement in terms of completeness or wholeness. The precise interpretation remains debated, but within the immediate context the statement clearly follows Jesus' teaching about God's indiscriminate generosity and the call to love enemies.

The question becomes:

What kind of person am I becoming?

That question will become central in the next section.

Love beyond boundaries

Jesus' teaching also appears in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

There, the issue is not simply whether people should love their neighbours.

The deeper question is:

Who counts as my neighbour?

Jesus transforms the question itself.

The neighbour is no longer merely the person who belongs to my accepted circle.

The neighbour becomes the person toward whom I act with mercy.

This will lead us later to a more detailed examination of the parable.

For now, the essential point is that love crosses boundaries.

It crosses the boundary between friend and enemy.

Between insider and outsider.

Between those who can repay and those who cannot.

Between those whom society values and those whom society ignores.

Love as the character of God's children

We can now see why the sequence developed in this study is important.

Kingdom → Repentance → Father → Love

The Kingdom announces God's reign.

Repentance turns the person toward that reign.

The Father reveals the relational character of the God who reigns.

Love becomes the character that those who live under that reign are called to embody.

The movement is therefore not:

Believe in God → perform religious duties.

It is:

See God differently → turn toward God → receive God's character → embody that character.

Jesus' teaching is consequently not satisfied with external conformity.

He asks what kind of person is being formed beneath the outward action.

That brings us to righteousness.

From love to righteousness

A person may perform the outward requirements of religion and yet remain inwardly shaped by anger, pride, contempt, resentment, or desire for superiority.

Jesus' concern is deeper.

He asks whether the person's inner life is becoming consistent with the character of God.

Thus righteousness cannot be reduced to a list of correct behaviours.

Rules can regulate behaviour.

But Jesus seeks to transform the person from whom behaviour comes.

The question is no longer simply:

“Did I do the right thing?”

It becomes:

“What kind of person am I becoming?”

That is the movement from love to righteousness.

And it is here that Jesus' teaching about the Law, the scribes and Pharisees, anger, adultery, retaliation, and enemy-love becomes especially significant.

The familiar word righteousness is about to receive another layer of meaning.