MR. LOVE

Matthew 5:43-48 (KJV)
"43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
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;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the ...evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Jesus begins with the beatitudes and moves through at least five examples of fulfilling the law in holy character. In the midst of His deliberation He ties into His purpose for coming concerning the Law, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (vs.17).
It is through the shed blood of Jesus and His amazing grace we are able to live out the Father’s heart. As He moves through the law He repeatedly says on each issue, “…You have heard it said, But I say to you…” This teaches us God’s demands for conduct are dynamic in nature historically. This means as relations evolve so does His demands in holy character.
Think about it in family terms; here we have a heavenly Father and He is full grown and practices holy character maturely (perfect). He expects His children would grow into that same maturity. Maturation is an evolving growth and so is learning to love.
Moses developed and gave them a written law of divorcement because of the hardness of their hearts. They were putting their wives away for small trivial reasons. Working through love was not their strong practice. Therefore, the law was demanding they must have a mature reason for putting their wives away. Jesus pointed to only one of those mature reasons that developed in that Law, and that was for fornication.
In other words, outside of fornication, He would expect they would learn love on a level to where they would keep their wives by working through the issues with forgiveness and relational fortitude. And, if we want to get really technical with the Father’s maturity in love, we might remember Hosea’s story.
Remember, Jesus did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets (writings) but to fulfill them. Hosea is among them as God had Him to take His wife who was practicing fornication. Hosea was to practice love on a higher level than what the Law demanded.
This is what our text is calling for and that is to learn love on higher levels, and to understand those higher levels is found in the Father’s maturity when it comes to Love. After all, He is Mr. Love Himself.
It all boils down into this simplicity – We are His children and He is our Father and we are learning love on His level. Now, His grace will take us there; outside of His grace, it is impossible.