Matthew 5:43-48
One may love one's enemies by one's actions and reactions. That doesn't necessarily mean we enjoy the presence of people who dislike us to the point of giving us a hard time.43 You know the saying, Love your neighbor; hate your enemy.
44 But I say, Love your enemies, bless those who put curses on you, do good to people who hate you and pray for those who spitefully abuse you and persecute you,
45 so that you may be the children of your heavenly Father; he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
46 If you love those who love you, where is the payoff in that? Don't the tax gatherers do that much?
47 And if you are friendly only with those in your clique, how is that doing more than what anyone does? Don't the tax gatherers do that much?
48 So be perfect [=complete], just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
As a matter of fact, I fully admit to my difficulty with my temper, how easily I am aggravated and irritated – even by people who don't mean to be my adversary. But, in general, I do try not to hold on to that distemper.
John 13:34
Though that teaching from Jesus is aimed at Christian fellowship, it also can be read as urging Christians to have mercy on the unlovable. After all, are not most people lost and disoriented – as we were before Christ entered our hearts?A new rule I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, you also love one another.
At those times that you are motivated only by unselfish love, you are showing that you are the image of God. When you have been born of the Spirit, that divine love indwells you and will shine forth from you. Once you have been reborn, you have become a perfect image of God. Yet, it is obvious that reborn people make errors and would not think of themselves as "perfect." The word "perfect" here means "complete, whole." The born-again person is a complete new being in Christ, if only a toddler.
You may recall that God told Abram,
Genesis 17:1
Walking with the Lord made Abram complete. He was to be fulfilled. He didn't need self-realization. He needed God-realization. Similarly, the teachings of the Sermon give guidelines for walking with the Lord. But, to repeat, the perfection (=completion) urged in these Scriptures is obtained by sticking close to God, not by the perfect performance of every suggestion in this Sermon – even though some day the born-again person will reach paradise where he will no longer struggle with his own clinging sin.
I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be perfect.
Observe the parallel between the Genesis Scripture and the Matthean verse 48 here. The Sermon's teachings give guidance toward communing (or walking) with God.
The English perfect is a rendering of the Hebrew tam. Other translations: complete, blameless, guiltless, integrity, peaceful.
One commentator has noted the parallel between Matthew 5:48 and
Leviticus 19:2
Outside of subtle connotations, one would be hard put to find much distinction between holy and perfect. In fact tam (pronounced tawm) refers to wholeness, which, in English, may connote holiness – an interesting pun. Holiness/wholeness implies the lack of nothing, without blemish.
... You shall be holy: for I, Jehovah your God, am holy.
When Jesus said to his disciples that they should become perfect, as their Father is perfect, he was forecasting something of which they were as yet unaware, or only dimly aware. They who had been chosen were being promised that they would become complete. Their completion occurred when they received the Spirit, which could only be granted to the spiritually dead (us) once Jesus had paid on the cross the price for our iniquity. Once we have the Spirit, this serves as an earnest, or guarantee, of salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14), which will be accomplished to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25).
One of the Johannine letters points up the relation between love and perfection.
1 John 4:18
Similarly, we haveThere is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.
1 Peter 4:8
The born-again person's faith will be finished, completed by Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) in due time, even as the Lord washes our feet spiritually in our day-to-day walk. That is, we get dirty from the world, but Jesus daily sets that straight. Even though we blunder, Jesus has robed the born-again person in his righteousness. Hence we are perfect in God's eyes, for God does not look upon sin (Habbukuk 1:13) [1].
And above all, have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover a great many sins.
Yet, it is Jesus' job to work on us every day to refine off the dross and bring out the image of God. Even so, Christians may sink into the Slough of Despond; but for the born again, the flagging spirit will recover as the heart is moved by Jesus.
Yes, we are to aspire to the standard set throughout the Sermon. But, if we could in fact maintain that standard, we wouldn't need salvation; we would already have eternal life, for we would have no sin.
One thing is certain. This saying about becoming perfect is not an admonition to engage in the psycho-spiritual disorder of perfectionism, which, at least partly, stems from the desire of the self to receive praise. And how can the imperfect (because sinful) self heal itself by self-correction? It doesn't work. The problem with sin is that it is like a debt that carries a loan-shark rate. The more you try to pay it off, the further behind you get. So we want to aim for the standard set by the Sermon on the Mount. Yet we accept that Jesus must daily work with us because of our current inability to walk with utter purity. And, like David, we can beseech God:
Psalms 51:10
On the one hand, that new heart is created the moment we accept Jesus as Lord and on the other, it is ever being recreated as the bad habits of the old heart are dealt with day by day, here a little, there a little. [2]
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
When you are clothed in the robe of the righteousness of Jesus, the perfection of Jesus is shared with and imputed to you. God does not see you as being in your former fallen state. He sees you as a friend of Jesus. That's perfect -- just as your little baby is perfect in your eyes. The child's "wrongs" are issues to work on, but they don't change your love for that child. And if that's true for you, how much more is it true for God?
You may be a backslider, failing to cope with innumerable sins. That's far from perfect, you say. But you underestimate Jesus. He has fixed his eye on saving you to the uttermost, no matter what might have to be done. Of course, if you have not actually been born again, then you can't really see God's Plan. The Plan is that once Jesus has accepted responsibility for you, your perfection is assured. He will get 'er done!
Hebrews 7:25
Once you have the Father, Son and Holy Spirit come in to your being and "sup with you" (Revelation 3:20), you are "transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2) and now lack no essential. That is, you are complete, or, in other words, perfect. But, even so, you have much to learn.
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
What is a most important sign that you have received Jesus as your Friend? Remember, Jesus prayed for you while you were still his enemy. As an unrepentant wrongdoer, that's what you were. Even though you committed them long after his resurrection, your misdeeds helped drive nails into his body. So if you now you pray for those who do you evil, you are imitating Christ. Praying for one's foes takes a blessed assurance that the future must get better, because Jesus now guards and molds your eternal future.
Praying for and doing good things for one's enemies is the ultimate mark of Christian love. That you can do such things is a big sign that you have been completed -- perfected -- in God's eyes.
Jesus seems to have prayed for his tormentors actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his hands and feet; indeed, the imperfect tense [of the biblical account in Greek] suggests that he kept praying, kept repeating his entreaty, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:24). If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord's prayer for his enemies, what pain, pride, prejudice or sloth could justify the silencing of ours?-- John R.W. Stott
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount: The Bible Speaks Today
(Inter-Varsity Press 1978)
I am not altogether sure of this citation's accuracy
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