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Matthew 5:48 - Be Perfect As Your Father In Heaven Is Perfect.

Matthew 5:48 (NKJV) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5:48 (AMP) You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48 (CWR) You need to reflect the maturity of your heavenly Father who is selfless and kind to everyone, even to those who don't deserve it.

INTRODUCTION

   How can we be perfect? (1) In character: In this life we cannot be flawless, but we can aspire to be as much like Christ as possible. (2) In holiness: Like the Pharisees, we are to separate ourselves from the world's sinful values. But unlike the Pharisees, we are to be devoted to God's desires rather than our own and carry his love and mercy into the world. (3) In maturity: We can't achieve Christlike character and holy living all at once, but we must grow toward maturity and wholeness. Just as we expect different behavior from a baby, a child, a teenager, and an adult, so God expects different behavior from us, depending on our stage of spiritual development. (4) In love: We can seek to love others as completely as God loves us.
   We can be perfect if our behavior is appropriate for our maturity level - perfect, yet with much room to grow. Our tendency to sin must never deter us from striving to be more like Christ. Christ calls all of his disciples to excel, to rise above mediocrity, and to mature in every area, becoming like him. Those who strive to become perfect will one day be perfect, even as Christ is perfect (1 John 3:2, 3). [Life Application SB]

COMMENTARY PEARL

   I have a problem with perfection. I want to be perfect!
   Perfectionism holds me back from simple joys like having my friend Terri over for lunch. When I consider the chaos in my craft room, the tracked-in sand on the floor, or any of the other ways my house is not cleaned or organized, I put it off.
   A friend in my newlywed days didn't worry about being perfect. Carolyn invited us often for dinner, sometimes before even checking to see what she had to serve. Her house was clean under the clutter, but she wasn't self-conscious and didn't apologize. She loved the Lord, loved company, and loved me well. Carolyn didn't try to be perfect, but she made friends feel perfectly at home.
   Yet here is Jesus talking to His disciples (and to me), saying, "Be perfect." The word Jesus used that was translated in Matthew 5:48 as "perfect" was teleios, Greek for "having reached its end, completeness, or fulfillment and maturity." It's not the sinlessness of never doing anything wrong. Jesus's context of "perfect" means loving people and treating them well, just as He did.
   Jesus wants me to grow in love for everyone with my eyes on them and my heart tuned to their needs. I won't get things perfect, but Jesus isn't asking me to. He wants me to mature and be complete in who He created me to be. And that sounds pretty perfect to me.
   I believe I'll invite Terri over to lunch after all. Suzanne Davenport Tietjen
   Faith Step: Watch for an opportunity to be perfectly loving to someone today. Make this a practice, focusing on someone Jesus loves, knowing there's no one He doesn't love. [Mornings With Jesus 2024 Devotional by Guideposts and Zondervan]

COMMENTARY

   The word "therefore" implies a conclusion, an inference from what has gone before. Jesus has been describing to His hearers the unfailing mercy and love of God, and He bids them therefore to be perfect. Because your heavenly Father "is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil" (Luke 6:35), because He has stooped to lift you up, therefore, said Jesus, you may become like Him in character, and stand without fault in the presence of men and angels.
   The conditions of eternal life, under grace, are just what they were in Eden - perfect righteousness, harmony with God, perfect conformity to the principles of His law. The standard of character presented in the Old Testament is the same that is presented in the New Testament. This standard is not one to which we cannot attain. In every command or injunction that God gives there is a promise, the most positive, underlying the command. God has made provision that we may become like unto Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will and thus frustrate His grace.
   With untold love our God has loved us, and our love awakens toward Him as we comprehend something of the length and breadth and depth and height of this love that passeth knowledge. By the revelation of the attractive loveliness of Christ, by the knowledge of His love expressed to us while we were yet sinners, the stubborn heart is melted and subdued, and the sinner is transformed and becomes a child of heaven. God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart. By it He changes pride into humility, and enmity and unbelief into love and faith.
   The Jews had been wearily toiling to reach perfection by their own efforts, and they had failed. Christ had already told them that their righteousness could never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now He points out to them the character of the righteousness that all who enter heaven will possess. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount He describes its fruits, and now in one sentence He points out its source and its nature: Be perfect as God is perfect. The law is but a transcript of the character of God. Behold in your heavenly Father a perfect manifestation of the principles which are the foundation of His government.
   God is love. Like rays of light from the sun, love and light and joy flow out from Him to all His creatures. It is His nature to give. His very life is the outflow of unselfish love.  MB 76, 77

CLOSING THOUGHT

Those who strive to become perfect will one day be perfect, even as Christ is perfect (1 John 3:2, 3). [Life Application SB]

LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY

1 Peter 1:14-16 - Be Holy for I Am Holy!
https://www.abible.com/devotions/2004/20040909-0902.html

2 Corinthians 13:11 - Christian Perfection.
https://www.abible.com/devotions/2006/20060315-0943.html

Matthew 19:21 - The Rich Young Man: Perfect or Problem?
https://www.abible.com/devotions/2007/20070507-1020.html

James 1:4 - Mature Fruit.
https://www.abible.com/devotions/2023/20230313-0831.html

2 Corinthians 7:1 - Which Will It Be?
https://www.abible.com/devotions/2020/20200502-1308.html

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

https://abible.com/links/