Matthew 5:43-45 says, “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may become sons of your Father who is in the heavens, because He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” Legally speaking, the old law-to love our neighbor and hate our enemy-is fair and righteous, for a neighbor deserves our love and an enemy deserves our hatred. However, in order to touch our natural being and to reveal how much the divine life within us can do for us, the Lord requires us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. This surpasses loving the neighbor and hating the enemy.
If we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, we behave as sons of the heavenly Father. The title “sons of your Father” is a strong proof that the Lord’s word here is addressed to regenerated believers of the New Testament. As sons of our Father, we should deal with the evil and the unjust as with the good and the just (v. 45), love not only those who love us but those who do not love us (v. 46), and greet not only our brothers but also others (v. 47). To live in such a way is to be virtuous sons of the heavenly Father. Through the divine dispensing, we need to practice this high standard of morality and virtue and thereby live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, which is the constitution of the heavenly kingdom. If we intend to live in the kingdom, we need to practice the high standard of morality and virtue revealed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5.
Matthew 5:48 says, “You, therefore, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” For the believers to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect is to be perfect in His love. They are the Father’s children, having the Father’s divine life and divine nature. Hence, they can be perfect as the Father.
The demand of the new law of the kingdom is much higher than the requirement of the law of the old dispensation. This higher demand can be met only by the Father’s life, not by our natural life. The kingdom of the heavens is the highest demand, and the life of the Father is the highest supply to meet that demand. The Gospels first present the highest demand of the kingdom of the heavens in the Gospel of Matthew and then afford us the highest supply of the divine life, the life of the heavenly Father, in the Gospel of John so that we may live the life of the kingdom of the heavens.
All the requirements of the laws in Matthew 5 reveal how much the divine life within us can do for us. These laws are not merely a requirement; they are a revelation showing us that the divine life can even make us perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. We have this perfecting life within us. We have a life with such a divine nature that it can make us as perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
We should not take the Lord’s word in Matthew 5 as a teaching concerning how we should behave. We are not able to imitate the Father. This way of behaving does not work. The Lord’s word was intended to touch our being and to expose what we are. When we have been exposed and subdued, we shall give the full opportunity to the divine life to live within us. This will make us perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 is an indicator that we have the Father’s life and nature within us. We have been born of Him, and we are His children. Because we are the Father’s children possessing His life and nature, there is no need for us to imitate Him or copy Him. As long as we grow in His life, we shall be the same as He is. Our only need is to be exposed so that we may give up all hope in ourselves. When we are exposed, we shall realize that our natural life is hopeless. Then we shall renounce our natural life, turn to the life of our Father, and stay with the divine nature. Spontaneously, this life will grow in us and fulfill the requirements of this highest law. It is crucial that we understand this matter, for it is altogether different from our natural concept.
As believers in Christ, we are not only God’s creatures; we are also His regenerated children, possessing His life and nature. Thus, we are not God’s creatures trying to copy and imitate Him; we are the Father’s children living the Father’s life. We became children of God when the Spirit of God came into our spirit to regenerate us and to make our spirit the habitation of God (Eph. 2:22). If we walk according to this regenerated spirit, we are the children of God living by God’s life. Spontaneously we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. In this way we shall be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Eventually, through our growth in life we shall be the same as He is.
Since we are sons of the heavenly Father possessing His life and nature, it is logical that we, His sons, should be perfect even as He is perfect. In order for us to be perfect in this way, we need to enjoy the dispensing of the divine life and nature into us by enjoying the Father Himself. As believers, we may experience and enjoy the dispensing of God as the Father in His love. This involves God’s eternal economy. In His eternal economy God sovereignly ordained that His sons should be like Him. Because we have been born of Him, there is no reason or excuse for us not to be like Him. The Father has begotten us, He has imparted His life into us, and He has given us His nature for our enjoyment. Now He is waiting for us to enjoy Him. The divine life brings us into His fellowship, and in this fellowship we enjoy the Father in His life and nature. Therefore, it is actually easy and normal for us, as sons of the Father, to be perfect as He is perfect. The way to be perfect is to remain in the divine fellowship to receive and enjoy continually the dispensing of the processed Triune God.
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