The Power To Live A Perfect Life Is In The Love
by Fred Rapp | November 2, 2015
Why would Jesus tell the religious leaders in Mathew 5:48, “to be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect?” In this chapter Jesus is comparing the letter of the law with the spirit of the law. In verse 43-44 Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus is showing the Father’s heart towards souls. Jesus said in the next verse, “the Father causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good.” The Father’s heart is that none perish.
The key to understanding this portion of scripture is in the Greek word translated love. Jesus is not saying to love your enemies with your love (phileo), but love your enemies with God’s love (agape). Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:17, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love.” Again the Greek is agape, not phileo.
The missing ingredient in all our lives is God’s love. Paul wrote in Romans 5:5 that, “God is pouring His love into our hearts.” The first century church began to experience the power of God’s love, the same love Jesus demonstrated throughout His life. John wrote in 1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love [agape] that God hath to us. God is love [agape]; and he that dwells in love [agape] dwells in God, and God in him.” This is how we are going to have the power to live perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. This is how we will be able to agape our enemies.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:5 “love [agape] doesn’t take into account the wrongs suffered.” God’s love is going to protect your heart at all times enabling you to live for God in any situation. We are on the threshold of the greatest out pouring of God’s love this world has ever seen.
This love is so powerful that is will affect your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. This love will make you whole, body, soul, and spirit. This love will cause the world to know that we are Jesus’s disciples, John 13:35. This love will produce full maturity in your life, and enable you to fulfill the two greatest commandments, “agape the Lord your God in all your heart and in all your soul and in all your mind, and agape your neighbor as yourself.”
You are being called into an intimate love relationship with God Himself on His level. It is the whole purpose for your existence.
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