43"You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But 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, 45that 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. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
OK, so the previous verses said when we are slapped, when we are slighted in any way, we are to go against our instincts and turn the other cheek, do more than is expected. This verse goes even further. This is saying to not only go against your instincts of retaliation, but to do the exact opposite of what would seem justifiable in the circumstances: 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.
This is very hard to do. Why should we do this? God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Good things happen to people whether they are good or bad. Bad things happen to people whether they are bad or good. Why should He allow this? Actually, this is our salvation. If God didn't allow good things to happen to bad people, none of us would ever have a chance at salvation. We love the fact that God will let good things happen to us even though we don't deserve it. We can respond to this overwhelming gift from God by trying to do the same to others who also don't seem to deserve it. God loves and blesses us all, we are to do the same.
It is easy to love those who love you, to be good to those who are good to you: your friends, your family, your neighbor, your brethren. Everyone has the capacity to love and do good, even the people who are bad. I think the example of tax collectors is another way of saying sinners are able to do the same. So if we wish to rise above other sinners, shouldn't we be able to do better than them? Shouldn't we be able to take that natural capacity for love and doing good and give it to those even less deserving than us? In our love for God, shouldn't we be able to do more than other sinners? Sure, maybe they don't deserve it, but then neither do we. We can take our love and spread it not just to those who are easy to love, but also to those who are hard to love. It is not easy but we can do it.
So why should we do this? Simply because God does it for us and so we may be as our Father in heaven. He gave us the capacity to give love and to do good. So let's do our best.
This chapter started with the beatitudes, one of which was blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. We have all been given so many undeserved blessings. We are the salt of the earth, we are the ones to season the earth with God's wishes. We are the light of the world. Our reflection of God must shine so others see the glory of God. How do we do this? The rest of the chapter explains how. Christ did the hard part for us. He fulfilled the law for us. He took the punishment of death for our sins. But He said whoever does and fulfills the commandments shall be great in heaven. So even though we can avoid the punishment of death, there is still work for us to do. We shall receive the glory, but we must still shine the light. And how do we shine the light? We are to reconcile with any of whom we hold a grievance. We are to remove ourselves from anything which causes us to sin. We are to not do anything which causes another to sin. We are to say what we mean, and to mean what we say. We are to do more than is demanded of us and leave all judgments and punishments to God. We are to love and do good to everyone regardless of their deservedness, just as God does. And in so doing, we become as sons of God, shining His light for everyone to see His glory.
Yes, you would have to be perfect in order to do all this. And we know we are not perfect, only God is perfect. But it is in our attempt to do these things that we shine God's light, and God's light is perfection. And what greater desire can we possibly have than to be a son of our Father in heaven? Shine on!