MATTHEW 5:48: THE PERFECTION QUESTION

MATTHEW 5:48: THE PERFECTION QUESTION

During His pioneering sermon (popularly known as The Sermon On The Mount), in summary of a theme He was presently treating, the Lord Jesus declared:

Therefore be ye perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect.

—Mat. 5:48

For years, nay, centuries, people have wrestled with this declaration of Scripture. For many, the scripture is troubling because it doesn’t give anyone the chance of preaching or practicing their own definition of “be ye perfect”, for Christ did not end His injunction at “Therefore be ye perfect”. Rather He went on to define the perfection He meant—“as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”— thereby providing a model, a template of the perfection in question. The Lord provided the reference point, just in case anyone isn’t sure. He made the standard known: Be as perfect as God (just as it is written in other Bible books that as God’s children we should be holy—Lev.19:2; 20:7; 1Pet.1:15-16).

People who believe we can only be perfect when we die try to explain that perhaps the Lord meant that we should endeavour to be qualified for perfection by God after death. But just a mere reading of the passage blows this flimsy interpretation away.

However, it seems here that the Lord is referring to an aspect of God’s perfection, and not the entirety of His glorious personality which Angels and all inhabitants of Heaven marvel at, day and night, crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord!”

This we know because the Lord began that statement with the linking word “therefore”—a conjunction which gathers several premises in the previous verses and links them to a conclusion in the last verse of the chapter.

“Be ye therefore…”

From verse 43 the Lord taught us that in our showing love to fellow humans we should not discriminate who loves us and who hates us, who is our relative and who is a stranger, etc; because if we do, we are no more different from people who aren’t followers of Jesus Christ. Rather, as God gives the basic necessities of mankind to everyone without discriminating who is righteous and who is wicked, so we should show kindness to all people without segregation.

In other words, we are not to be partial to people in being kind, instead we should be “perfect” in loving everyone. As your heavenly Father is perfect (impartial, without discrimination) in showering the common blessings, so we should be perfect (impartial) in showing same love to people.

Note that Mat. 5:48 is not the end of the Sermon on the Mount, else we could safely resolve that that’s the conclusion of all that the Lord taught that day, spanning three chapters (Matthew 5, 6 & 7). Rather it’s simply the theme of love which the Lord taught in verses 43-47 of Matthew 5 that He “therefore” summarized in verse 48.

Inasmuch as the Scripture enjoins us to be children of our heavenly Father in all things, this verse, in context, only tells us to show love without partiality.