Wow! What a command! Be sure to read the scriptures preceding this one so you can read in context.
Life Application Study Bible, NIV, footnotes:
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 form 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).
You mentioned the preceding context; the word "therefore" in 5:48 also points back to what preceded. In 5:43 Jesus says his disciples have heard (in the synagogues) to love their neighbor and hate their enemy. (Lev. 19:18 defines the neighbor as "the sons of your people," fellow Jews, and Lev. 26:7 later says to cut down their enemies, the Canaanites, with the sword.)
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, Jesus says to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors (5:44). If they do all this, they will be children of their Father who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust (5:45). Like Father, like son (child).
So being perfect here, as their Father is perfect, means loving everyone (not just their "neighbor"), even enemies and persecutors, even the evil and the unjust. They should show mercy and kindness to all of them, just as their Father does in giving all of them sunshine and rain. If they do all this, and not just the part taught in the synagogue, they will be perfect as their Father is perfect. Jesus contrasts a partial love with a perfect love.