Loving Like the Father
Matthew 5:48 CEB “Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete”
Devotional Thought
“I am not sure I am your father, go and meet your mother, to show you who your father is.” If you are an African, born and brought up in an African community, you must have heard this statement once, or several times, even if it is not directly from your father, maybe from your neighborhood.
Whenever a child picks up a lifestyle that is completely different from that of his father, he puts a question mark on his mother’s matrimonial integrity. Every child is supposed to be like his father. Jesus says, “… just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete”
Christ is trying to tell the disciples, you cannot look and live like the child of a tax collector, when the Lord is your Father. Something about you should remind people about God, when they meet you. You need to love like your Father loves, and not like a tax collector.
The God’s Kind of Love
The tax collectors love those who love them, greet only their brethren, and hate their enemies. The tax collectors’ love is an example of an incomplete and immature love. God’s love is complete and perfect, that is the level of love that, God wants all His children to come to, by the help of the Holy Spirit.
Our love must not stay on the same level; we must grow from level to level. Our love must come to maturity; where we can love, not only those who love us, but also those who hate us and made themselves our enemies.
We can bless those who curse us, and do good to those who hate us. We can pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us. This is the level Jesus was pointing to His disciples to loving like the Father loves.
Let’s Talk A bout It.
How can we grow in love?
Prayer Starter.
Father, help me to love like You love, in Jesus’ name.