so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Matthew 5:45 (CSB)
This finishes what Jesus said yesterday. Love your enemies. Here’s why: so you’ll look like your Father in heaven.
“Sons” or “children of” someone was an old way of saying you take after them. You act like them. So loving an enemy isn’t how you earn a spot in God’s family. It’s how you show you’re already in it.
Then Jesus tells us what God is like. God sends the sunrise on good people and bad people. He sends rain on the fields of people who love Him and people who hate Him. The person who curses God this morning still gets a sunny day. God is kind to people who never thank Him.
That kindness is real, but it isn’t the same as saving them. A sunny day isn’t heaven. Still, it shows us God’s heart. And it shows us what to copy.
So loving an enemy isn’t a warm feeling you force. It’s one small thing God already does. A kind word. A little help you could’ve kept to yourself. You do it because that’s what your Father is like.
We can only do this because of Jesus. He’s God’s true Son, and He looks exactly like the Father (Heb 1:3). He came to a world full of enemies and did nothing but good, all the way to the cross. And He brought us into God’s family (Gal 4:4-6). We act like the Father because the Son made us His children.