The Monday after the Fourth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 14, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 5:43-48 (NKJV)
8:43 “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 Lord’s call for us to love our enemies often causes much consternation—but when we fully understand the kind of love Jesus commands in this text we can see and understand His divine intent more clearly. If we can see things as God does, at least to some tiny extent, we will see with far greater clarity. The Greek word recorded in this passage is ?????? which can be described as a parental tough love with long-term desires and goals. Think of parents’ desire for their child to be a good and holy person, to live a pious life of grace, eventually reaching eternal paradise with the Lord. To love your enemies in this way is to hope the same for them—to hope for their repentance and humble reception of the grace of Christ in faith.
This type of love is nothing less than hoping for their conversion and praying that they become true disciples of Christ. By loving them, you strive to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, and desire their justification by grace in faith—“not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
Collect: 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, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
