THE WILL TO LOVE - Vital Christianity

65Because God’s love is without discrimination and extends to the just and the unjust alike,our love is to be without discrimination. Because God’s love results in action, our love is toexpress itself in action. We are to love those who are, by all human standards our enemies.MAN’S LOVETo love merely our family, relatives and friends is natural:“If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the taxcollectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doingmore than others? Do not even pagans do that? (Mt 5:46-47)To love our own kind is an instinct in human nature which has survived the Fall. Even theworst and lowest of mankind—(the “tax collector” and the “pagan”)—show this kind of love.Therefore there is nothing meritorious or praiseworthy in it. It is mere human love—reciprocallove. What God demands is divine love—supernatural, indiscriminate love.Returning good for good and evil for evil is the rule of the natural man. Returning evil forgood is the rule of the devil and his cohorts. Returning good for evil is the rule of God. And it isto this the sons of God are summoned here.Justice seems to be the highest form of ethics man is able to attain. Confucius was onceasked whether one should respond to injury with kindness. His answer was:“With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justiceand recompense kindness with kindness.”On the eve of the final collapse of the Nazi empire the central conference of Jewishrabbis met and declared:“In considering the treatment of a defeated Germany, we, as religious leaders, firstaffirm our confident hope that the victorious allies will be guided by justice ratherthan by vengeance.”But the standard of the kingdom of God is higher than the standard of the world. Thestandard of the kingdom of God is even higher than justice; it is love. Love is what is expected ofthe citizens of the kingdom of God. And this love is made possible by God who has revealedHimself in the Person of His son Jesus Christ.Jesus ends this section of His Sermon with these words:“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48)