By Rev. Eric Moquin
What kind of love is fatherly love, exactly? That is, what kind of love ought a father have for his children?
I would say that fatherly love is God-fearing. Fatherly love is firm but forgiving, principled and compassionate. Fatherly love provides and protects. Fatherly love shows readiness to receive children for who they are while also instructing them in who God has made them to be.
How about … perfect? It’s uncomfortable, but that’s exactly how Jesus categorizes fatherly love in Matthew 5:43-48. I find this troublesome. I’ll at least speak for myself to say that fatherhood has been a keen teacher of a truth I already knew well: I’m not perfect.
Yet, our heavenly Father’s love is perfect. In this selection from His sermon on the mount, Jesus paints a portrait of His Father’s perfect love. The perfection of God’s love comes from His unwavering and universal goodness.
He makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the evil and on the just. He is not motivated by self- interest. He does not calculate the return when He invests His love across His creation.
As Martin Luther puts it in his explanation to the first article of the Apostles’ Creed in the Small Catechism: When God gives, provides, and defends, “He does (so) only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.”
This perfect, impartial love far exceeds the love of any earthly father, since the goodness to his children can so often be partial, picky, dependent upon the performance or obedience of his children, held captive to passions such as anger, or be attached to the self-interest of pride.
What, then, do we make of Jesus’ command that our love for others (including a father’s love for his children) be perfect? We kneel before Christ Jesus, who gives the perfection He commands.
When Jesus commands a perfect love in Matthew 5:48, He uses the word teleios (“perfect.”) This adjective means perfect in the sense of complete or finished. It is related to the verb teleo that Jesus calls out from the cross when He exclaims: “It is finished!” Teleo, like the adjective teleios, carries the sense of being perfect in completion. In the offering of Jesus’ life on the cross, our heavenly Father’s love for us is made perfect and complete.
Christ’s perfect sacrifice completely transforms the position of us imperfect people relative to our perfect Father. The writer to the Hebrews proclaims in 10:14 that “by a single offering (Jesus) has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” “Perfected” in this verse is the verb teleio, carrying the same sense of being made perfect and complete.
The Scriptures testify to this beautiful truth of our heavenly Father’s love: He sent Jesus, His Son, to complete and perfect His love for us, so that we might be regarded as perfect and complete in His eyes. He did this — to borrow Martin Luther’s poignant phrase — “only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.”
Fathers, don’t despair of the earthly faults of your imperfect love for your children. Remember that you
fatherly love is forged in the perfection of Christ’s sacrifice. Confess your sins as a father to Christ, who was crucified for you as the ultimate expression of God’s perfect fatherly love. Your Father’s love in Christ Jesus gives you what He requires from you: perfection.
This month’s study text:
Love Your Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is 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. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48
Reflection Questions:
Read 1 John 3:1. How does the apostle John characterize our heavenly Father’s love for us?
Fathers, your children are one of the blessings that God has given to you “only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in (you).” In what ways might you express your gratitude toward God, and toward your children, for the gift that they are to you?
Jesus calls all of us, whether you are a father or not, to love everyone, not only those who love you in return. In what relationship(s) do you struggle to carry out this kind of godly love? Ask the Lord for the help of His perfect love to make your love like His.
Prayer:
Lord God, heavenly Father, You sent Your Son Jesus Christ for us. He was crucified for our forgiveness. He was raised for our salvation. He is the perfect completion of Your unwavering grace. Receive our thanks for earthly fathers, especially for their example of Christian love and faithfulness. Give them wisdom, so that they would love well their children of every age. Release fathers and children from the bonds of bitterness and scorn through the joy of reconciliation and forgiveness. By Your Holy Spirit’s power, give us a loving regard for all our neighbors, so that our love would be a reflection to the world of Your perfect love for us and for them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Rev. Eric Moquin is pastor at St. John Lutheran Church in Sherwood, Ohio.