Monday after the Fourth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on June 28, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 5:43-48 (NKJV)
5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Devotion
The Christ came into the world to pay for the sins of all mankind, so that everyone who believes in Him would be justified. John 3:17 says, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
This is important to remember when we read those passages where Christ gives the Law. “Love your enemies,” He says, “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” If we stop there, we may think that Christ came only to tell us what to do. If we are honest with ourselves, we realize that we do not love even our friends perfectly, let alone our enemies. It would follow, then, that we are not sons of the Father, but damned sinners.
Thanks be to God that Scripture does not stop there with the Law. Christ, whose work is to save the world, is teaching about Himself. In this life we will never love our enemies as we should. So He did. On the cross He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). He loved His enemies in our place, because we cannot.
We were once His enemies. Through Baptism He made us children of God. We cannot be perfect as our Father is perfect by trying to be perfect. Rather, the Father declares us to be perfect when we are baptized into Christ so that His perfect love is applied to us.
Prayer: Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Thy governance that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
