A compilation

Be perfect,* therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.—Matthew 5:48 NIV

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If someone told us we have to be perfect … yikes! How do we do that? But that is what Jesus is telling us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” With the exception of Jesus, no one is perfect, nor will ever be perfect, so what does Jesus mean?

To be perfect in what Jesus is saying doesn’t mean to be flawless as we would use the word “perfect” today. It means that we fulfill the purpose for which we were created. For example, if I take my pen and begin writing a letter, you may ask me, “How is the pen?” I would say, “It’s perfect.” What I mean is that the pen does what it’s supposed to do. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a cheap pen or an expensive one. It may be chipped, bitten, and half full of ink, but it’s perfect for the purpose for which it was made. It only matters that it works.

When Jesus says, “Be perfect,” He is asking us to be what God created us to be. We were created to be in the likeness of God’s moral image, so that our lives express something of the moral character of God.

We are perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect only to the measure in which His character is being displayed in us. We cannot do this by imitating God, but only by expressing [Him] in us and through us. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul says “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” In other words, in this life we will never fully achieve the moral character of God, but that is the end purpose for which the Spirit of God is at work in our lives.

Perfection is about being what God created us to be, and when Jesus said, “Be perfect,” He is saying that despite our failures, sin, and brokenness, we allow God to manifest His character in us, bringing us to an ever-increasing likeness of His moral image.—Charles Price

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As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.—Psalm 18:30 NIV

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I am involved in each moment of your life. I have carefully mapped out every inch of your journey through this day, even though much of it may feel haphazard. Because the world is in a fallen condition, things always seem to be unraveling around the edges. Expect to find trouble in this day. At the same time, trust that My way is perfect, even in the midst of such messy imperfection. … As you trudge through the sludge of this fallen world, keep your mind in heavenly places with Me. Thus the light of My presence shines on you, giving you peace and joy that circumstances cannot touch.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy1

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I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.—Isaiah 41:13 NIV

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The whole of the Sermon [on the Mount] is framed within Jesus’ announcement that what his fellow Jews had longed for over many generations was now coming to pass—but that new kingdom didn’t look like they had thought it would. Indeed, in some ways it went in exactly the other direction. No violence, no hatred, no anxious protection of land and property against the pagan hordes. Rather, a glad and unworried trust in the creator God, whose kingdom is now at last starting to arrive, leading to a glad and generous heart toward other people, even those who are technically “enemies.” Faith, hope and love. They are the language of life, the sign in the present of green shoots growing through the concrete of this sad old world, the indication that the creator God is on the move, and that Jesus’ hearers and followers can be part of what he’s now doing.

That is the context within which Jesus says perhaps the most remarkable thing of all: be perfect, because your heavenly Father is perfect. The Greek is teleios [completeness]. You must be people of the goal, people of genuine humanness, people who are “complete.” It’s the same word which, in Matthew’s version of the story of the rich young ruler,2 Jesus said to the young man: in effect, “If you want to be ‘complete,’ teleios, then go and sell your possessions, give to the poor, and come and follow me.” … And we note that in each case the “perfection” in question consists not of a long list of hard moral commands dutifully obeyed but of a character formed by overflowing generous love.—N. T. Wright

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This life will never be perfect. You’ll never be perfect while you’re in this life. The only things that can be perfect are the things I give: perfect peace as you let go of concerns about yourself and hang on to Me; perfect fulfillment as you express your trust in Me by letting Me do through you whatever I know is best; and perfect faith that even though you falter and fail, you trust in My unconditional love that will never fail to hold you close and turn everything for good.

Perfection in this life is an impossibility. If you could be perfect, you would have no need of a Savior. Like a child depends on his father to do what he cannot, this very lack of perfection draws you to Me and Me to you in love.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part will be done away.—1 Corinthians 13:10

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“For by grace are ye saved through faith.”3 But it’s all by faith. “Now we see in part, then we will know even as also we are known.”4 Now we know in part, then we will know completely.

By faith you’re saved, and it’s as good as done. In fact, it was finished on the cross. In fact, it was finished before the world was ever founded, before creation, by Christ “slain before the foundation of the world.”5 Preordained by God, foreordained, predestinated that you’d be saved if you’d believe by faith. But if this were your full salvation, if your salvation were really complete now, it would not be true salvation, because you’re still on this earth and your body still suffers from the Curse and sickness and hunger and weariness and even death.

We’re talking now about the full salvation, the complete salvation, and you won’t be completely saved, physically as well as spiritually, till Jesus returns. You’re saved now only by faith and you’re certainly saved spiritually, although even spiritually you’re not perfected yet. Even in spirit today you have your problems and ups and downs with your wife or your husband or your children or your father and mother, and you have problems. So you’re not perfected yet.

But the time’s coming when “the spirits of just men will be made perfect.”6 You haven’t been perfected yet in either spirit or body. So you’re really only saved by faith. But look up, for your redemption draweth nigh!7 Then you’ll be totally saved, not only by faith but in body, soul, and spirit, completely perfected, and whole and redeemed, redemption of the body as well as the spirit! “The spirits of just men made perfect.”—Bodies made perfect and eternal and no longer subject to the Curse or the ravages of disease or weariness or hunger or faintness or needing sleep.

That’s the kind of redemption He’s talking about! “Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.” He is saying that your real final redemption is drawing nigh.—David Brandt Berg

 

* Following are the definitions of the word teleios used in the New Testament for perfect:

1. to make perfect, complete; a) to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end
2. to complete (perfect); a) add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full, b) to be found perfect
3. to bring to the end (goal) proposed
4. to accomplish; a) bring to a close or fulfillment by event (of the prophecies of the scriptures)

Published on Anchor January 2014. Read by Bryan Clark. Music by Michael Dooley.

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