Matthew 5:45 (VOICE) in so doing, you become children of your Father in heaven. He, after all, loves each of us—good and evil, kind and cruel. He causes the sun to rise and shine on evil and good alike. He causes the rain to water the fields of the righteous and the fields of the sinner.
Beloved, I do not pick and choose which of you are worth loving. I deem you all worthy of love. I don’t withhold sunshine from one while I pour it out on another. I’m not fickle or changing. I AM steadfast and true.
If you desire to be like Me, you too must be steadfast. You too must love liberally – refusing to withhold it on a whim or as a punishment. To be like Me, requires true sacrificial love. It requires knowing that even as you choose to die to your fleshly responses, often no one will see or know but Me – and yet that is sufficient. So love unconditionally with abandon, and do so with no desire for recognition knowing My approval is all you need.
Matthew 5:44-48 (VOICE) But I tell you this: love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you— in so doing, you become children of your Father in heaven. He, after all, loves each of us—good and evil, kind and cruel. He causes the sun to rise and shine on evil and good alike. He causes the rain to water the fields of the righteous and the fields of the sinner. It is easy to love those who love you—even a tax collector can love those who love him. And it is easy to greet your friends—even outsiders do that! But you are called to something higher: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”