If you love those who love you, what is special about that? Do not even tax collectors do as much? And if you are friendly only to your friends,
what is so exceptional about that? Do not even the pagans do as much? As for you, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
REFLECTION:
How merciful, just, kind and forgiving the Lord is! How loving he is to all his creatures, most especially towards us, weak and sinful men and women.
Scripture is replete with instances where human beings have committed sins so heinous that they cry out to heaven for vengeance.
And in these instances, God does in fact pronounce judgment and wrath upon the perpetrators of injustice.
And yet when they humble themselves and beg for his mercy and forgiveness, he shows himself a truly merciful and kind judge.
He relents. This is the same kind of mercy, forgiveness, and ultimately, love that Jesus enjoins his disciples to have.
It is the “perfection” of which he speaks: to be just like the Father, as merciful, as kind, as loving and as forgiving as he is.
This is what God’s justice and righteousness is: it is none other than love itself.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020