Perfect

Matt 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This verse has been the cause of great struggle for many sincere believers. Perfect? As your heavenly father is perfect? Did someone hit Matthew over the head with a bag of denari? God is infinite, uncreated, omni-everything you can think of. How could I possibly be perfect, let alone perfect in the same way He is? Just the thought of it is making me tired already. Oh, wait a minute. Look at the first word in the sentence. Therefore. I once heard a very wise man say that when you see a verse start with a "therefore" you need to find out what it is "there for". I know... I don't really care for "cute" either, but its true. The word therefore means that the meaning of that sentence is tied to the passage it follows. When we look back a few verses we find that Jesus gives some clarity and definition to the perfection He is talking about.

Matt 5:43-47

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? "And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Therefore you are to be perfect....

It appears that the perfection Jesus is talking about has to do with the way we walk out the love He calls us to. He loves all men equally and freely. Nature declares it. The sun and the rain fall on all indiscriminately. His love is perfect. Its not based on performance. He doesn't love the obedient and hate the disobedient. He loves all people. He values them all equally. We know that men and women don't naturally love that way. We each have a checklist, even if we don't realize it. The people who are most pleasing to us receive the most value and the best treatment. People who don't score well on our invisible checklist don't generally get the same quality of care. Jesus is calling us to something higher, better, more perfect. He is calling us to partake in His perfect love. He is calling us to love people just because they are His creation. He is calling us to see them as He sees them, and love them as He loves them. He loves His enemies. He died for His enemies. We were all there. We were all on the enemy team. His love captured our hearts, and we switched teams. We joined His team. By His grace we have been brought into a new life in a new kingdom.

Col 1:13-14
For He delivered us from the domain(kingdom)of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So how is he defining "perfect" here? It seems pretty simple. Its love that shows no favoritism. People have inherent value simply because God made them, and He wants to teach us to walk in that kind of love. Perfect love.

I do want to clarify something. Perfect love, unconditional love is not the same as unconditional acceptance. God is love. Everything He does is an expression of that love. But that love and His perfect wisdom require that His acceptance be conditional. Sin is inherently destructive. Its terminally bad for us. He can't just let us freely live in sin. He can't just look the other way. That would not be love. You don't just stand back and let someone you love destroy themselves and hurt others. That's why He sent Jesus to the cross. He made a way to justly forgive us, and deliver us, and reconcile us to Himself. If we will repent and believe in that offer of a new life in a new kingdom, we find love and acceptance. He has always loved us, and always will. He loves Mother Teresa, and He loves Adolph Hitler. But he cant accept us unless we respond in humility to His conditions. Perfect love. Perfect wisdom. Awesome God.