“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Matthew 5:48

Me? Be perfect!? You can’t be serious! There is simply no way I could ever pull off being perfect. I could never even pull off being perfect one day, much less for the rest of my life. This is just too much to ask of me!

Perhaps you can relate to those sentiments. Perhaps when you read these demanding words of the Lord you think to yourself that there is no way to attain such a state of perfection – the perfection that is seen in the Father. And yet, that is what Jesus said: be perfect, just as your Father is perfect.

Is Jesus speaking here of sinless perfection? Of living a life free from any sinful actions, attitudes, or involvements? Is He speaking of living a totally sinless life – a life lived in absolute obedience to the standard of the Father’s perfection? If so, then let’s admit it: we all fall woefully short of attaining this standard of perfection.

God is perfect in every way. There is no wavering in God: He is the same today, yesterday, and forever. He is consistent in all His activities. Totally dependable, completely reliable, absolutely perfect. And we are here commanded by Jesus to attain that state of perfection?

But how are we to do this? The Bible makes it clear that we are not perfect, and that our best efforts to attain perfection are never up to the task. These verses illustrate that truth clearly, and painfully.

“There is none righteous, no, not one.”

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Romans 3:10; Philippians 3:12; 1 John 1:8

Therefore, if the Bible states assertively that we can’t be perfect, why would Jesus place such an overwhelming, unattainable demand on us? Was He placing on us a demand that is impossible to achieve? Would that not be an extremely unloving thing for Him to do? It would cause a life filled with unrelenting guilt and paralyzing anxiety.

In order to understand this seemingly impossible burden the Lord has placed on His disciples, let’s consider for a moment the context of the statement. The immediate context (Matt. 5:43-48) speaks of Jesus’ teaching on loving our enemies as we do our neighbors. The extended context actually begins at Matthew 5:17, culminating with our focal verse, Matthew 5:48. Jesus speaks in those preceding verses about the fact that He had not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but rather He had come to fulfill them. He then says that if our righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees we would not enter the kingdom of heaven!

Jesus then gives a series of comparisons, each beginning with the formula, “You have heard that it was said to those of old… But I say to you…” He was drawing a comparison between an outward form of righteousness with a sincere inward righteousness. The statement in Matthew 5:48 could be viewed as a culmination of the entire discourse, which would lead us to understand that the call for perfection would be in relation to the topics He discussed in the passage: murder, adultery, divorce, taking oaths, retaliation, and love.

If that is the correct way of understanding His demand of perfection, then He is saying that we should be completely mature, fully developed spiritually so that we are living up to the standard set for us by the Father, and not just obeying outwardly (as were the scribes and Pharisees) while inwardly harboring a spirit of hatred, or lust, or the desire for revenge, etc.

We are exhorted here to be mature disciples, fully striving, as Paul states in the verse quoted above, to attain perfection – completeness, maturity – by pressing on to the fulfillment of that stature.

There is a Biblical illustration of this word that would probably shed some much needed light on this subject. In Matthew 4:21 we are told that James and John were “Mending their nets.” The word translated “mending” is a word which means to “make perfect” or “to restore.” They were “perfecting” their nets in preparation for another day of fishing. The nets would certainly not be perfect, but they would be ready, prepared.

Perhaps that is the way we are to understand this statement of Jesus, demanding of us perfection. We are to be restored, prepared, ready and alert at all times in service to our Lord. And it should be from a pure heart of love and devotion to the Lord Jesus.

Are we to strive for total perfection? Absolutely! But even when we fail to live up to that standard, we are to be restored and prepared for service and ministry. So the question we must ask ourselves is this: am I being perfected day by day in sincere spiritual development, or am I only displaying an outward form of righteousness while inwardly I am continuing to harbor feelings, desires, thoughts and schemes which completely and drastically contradict what I want people to think of me?

Our righteousness should be an outward manifestation of an inward reality – not mere show hoping I will cause others to think of me as being spiritually mature. So, when we look in the mirror of the Word of God it should be a reflection of true righteousness because of our total commitment to the Lord. Then, our Lord will be able to look at us and say, “Well done!” And that is the state of perfection we should all be striving to attain.