15. Children of the Father
Matthew 5:44-45 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Luke 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
The conditional promise is that we shall be children of the Father. In the context, “children of God” is a metaphor meaning people are acting like their Father insofar as kindness to the unthankful and goodness to the evil. Those who love their enemies are “chips off the old block.” The promise of being children is connected to great reward in heaven—being a child is the great reward.
The promise of reward encourages us to love our enemies and do good to them that hate us. We do not see the benefit of loving enemies, being kind to the evil, and treating kindly those who treat us badly; for this reason Jesus assures us that it will be a good thing for us and a reward is coming: those who are like God will be with Him as eternal children in life. It may not look like it, but being a child of the Father is in itself also an immediate reward; it is a certain sense of satisfaction.
It should be noted that “enemies” in this context does not mean spiritual enemies (sin, death, devil) for we hate them with perfect and eternal hatred; we make war against spiritual enemies, but “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.” We never fight against physical people, only against sin, death and devil. Flesh and blood people of the world are instruments used by Sin and Satan. They tempt humans to treat us badly and do us harm; we must separate the sin from the sinner, hating the one and loving the other. Vengeance, getting even, and retaliation are never excused or considered acceptable behavior; love, forgiveness, and kindliness are the only acceptable behaviors toward the evil and the good, the just and the unjust. Forgiving, blessing, loving, praying for and doing good to people who mean you harm goes against the grain, but this response is singled out for great reward. Faith and incentive helps sinful, selfish sinners do the hard thing. Life is better when we remember the promises of God.