Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5: 48, NIV.
Gracious God, We need Your wisdom and we need Your grace to help us to understand Your Word. In the blessed name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
I have heard more arguments on what this text “really means” than I care to acknowledge! We argue back and forth without ever reaching a consensus. I would be rather presumptuous, and conceited , to believe that whatever I have to offer to the discussion is the one answer. Permit me just to share with you some thoughts as I meditate on God’s Words. First of all, doing some research of the word perfect, led me to the discovery that the word used in our text for today for perfect, teleios, means complete, among other definitions, as it applies to different situations: our moral and mental character; fully grown; a completed work; to reach one’s goal; to be lacking in nothing, etc. I believe that with these definitions we have a sufficiently clear idea of what the word means. This word, used in Matthew 5: 48, should not be confused with anamartetos (e has an ay sound), another word for perfect, which means, without sin. It is comprised of the negative particle, a (without), and hamartano, (emphasis on third a, and long o sound), (to sin). This word is found only in John 8: 7.
If we keep before us the correct meaning of the word, I believe that it will provide us with an idea of what Jesus may have had in mind when He made the statement found in our Scripture for today. Having said that, we will now try to understand these words of Jesus in the context of everything that was said before, in the chapter. As we studied a few days ago, much of what Jesus made reference to, had to do with what goes on on the inside of a person. But there is also a lot to be said, about His statements, “It has been said,” and, “You have heard that it was said,” repeated four times, consecutively, in chapter 5. Apparently there was some disconnect between Jesus’ intentions, and what the religious leaders taught the people. So Jesus set the record straight, while He was here on earth. After telling us what was said, He went on to tell us what was meant! He finally ended one of the greatest treatise on Christian living ever written, with the challenge, “Now, go and do as I have shown you.” In other words, “Let My love, My justice, My righteousness, be the model for yours. It could not be the replica of, because our sphere of perfection is teleios (complete), while His sphere of perfection is hamartano (sinless).
What should be of great encouragement to all of us, is the knowledge that, Jesus made it possible for us to “walk as He walked,” (1 John 2: 6), by creating us in His likeness and image. Therefore, as He provides us with His Holy Spirit, we will be able to say like Paul, “I can do all things, through Christ, which strengthens me” Philippians 4: 13. I can acquire complete moral and mental maturity. I can arrive at the place where I am lacking none of the virtues of a fully grown Christian. Like Paul, I can say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race [reached my goal], I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4: 7). If we can be contented with “godliness, god-likeness,” as our “goal” (Education, p.18), I believe that we will have the strength to resist the suggestion of the “serpent” to be, “like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3: 5c).
Our Savior has made every provision for us to reach “our sphere of perfection as “He is perfect,” in His sphere” E. G. White.