What Does It Mean To Be Perfect? Matthew 5:43-48

 Love for Enemies

Jesus' teaching here is highly regarded in by people of all faiths and philosophies in terms of the ethics he prescribes. The Sermon on the Mount is the basis for many if not all of our Judeo-Christian values.  

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 

The bible was clear in the Old Testament about loving your neighbor, but the "hate your enemy" part was added by the scribes and Pharisees.  They distorted the original teaching in Leviticus to regard all of their neighbors as their enemies.  Generally all of these neighbors were seen as "Gentiles", who were unclean and to be avoided at all costs.

44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 

Jesus gets back to the true intent of the Law, which was to love all people because they are made in God's image. "Jesus understood we will have enemies, yet we are to respond to them in love, trusting that God will protect our cause and destroy our enemies in the best way possible, by transforming them into our friends." (Guzik)

Part of loving our enemies is to pray for them.  Have you ever prayed for an enemy?  It is actually quite a freeing experience.  The more you pray for someone, you can release anger, resentment and a need to exact revenge. You might even finding yourself interceding for them to find God before it is too late. 

45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

The way we love other people, all people, shows the world who we really are, children of God.  Just like your kids are a reflection of you, for good and for bad, we reflect to the world the one we worship.  Your children don't become mature overnight. but they do so by imitating those who reflect God's values and hopefully yours, if you are a parent.  Christians imitate Jesus, who is our ultimate role model.  We see on the cross when Jesus' enemies were crucifying him he said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" Jesus modeled what he taught his disciples in the most difficult situation one could find themselves in.  

God loves everyone equally, just like God causes the sun to rise on the evil and good, and the rain to fall on the rightteous and unrighteous.  In the same way we should love all people equally.

46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 

It is easy to love those who love you, but when we love those who don't love us, we reflect God's love. Romans 5:8 says, "While were yet sinners, Jesus died for us!"  It makes sense that we would spend time with those who love us, after all it is a lot more pleasureable. Yet, God calls us out of the world to reflect His love to a lost world.  The tax collectors were Jews who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman empire.  Jesus' uses them as a comparision, because they were depised by Jews. 

47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 

Jesus moves from the hated tax collectors and lumps the pagans in with the same analogy. 

48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

When we see the word "perfect", we think of someone who never makes a mistake.  But the sense of the word here is an ideal state and an imperative to move toward this state of being.  We say something similar when we say a Christian should, "Grow to Christ-like maturity!"  Jesus was perfect, we are not.  But through Christ we have been made perfect because of what He has done for us.  Therefore, as we have been justified by faith and set apart (or we might say "sanctified") for good works, let us strive to become that for which we were intended.  

Think about our world right now.  Think about what you see on the news or in the headlines.  Do you see how counter cultural it would be to live according to Jesus' ideals as we show ourselves to be sons and daughters of God?

Do you love those who don't like you?  What would it look like for you to do so?  Could you start by praying for them?  Do you have relationships with people far from God?  When people see you at work on in social settings do you set an example that imitates the Lord?  If people did not know you were a Christian would they be able to come to the conclusion by watching how you treat others?    

Though we will never be "perfect" in this life, we can set our eyes on Jesus and learn from him how to live a life worthy of the calling he has given us. Without the power of the Holy Spirit we can't do any of this!