You Must be Perfect

The Difficult Sayings of Jesus

Matthew 5:48 ESV

48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43–48 ESV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The Nobody’s Perfect Cop Out

The Nobody’s Perfect Cop Out

Who among you here is perfect?

Story is told of a man who used to be a very smart mathematician and became mentally ill ..who made a claim “that he is perfect”. His friend asked “why do you think you are perfect?”. You were not perfect when you were a mathematician in your right mind, you can’t be perfect now when you are crazy and a nobody. Being the mathematician that he was before he went crazy the man replied, “I am perfect because of transitive property of equality”? What is that asked his friend. The transitive property of equality of math states that if a = b, and b = c then a= c. WHom that is right said his friend. Well said the crazy man, then “If I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect then that means I am perfect!”

Story is told of a man who used to be a very smart mathematician and became mentally ill who made a claim “that he is perfect”. His friend asked “why do you think you are perfect?”. You were not perfect when you were a mathematician in your right mind, you can’t be perfect now when you are crazy and a nobody. Being the mathematician that he was before he went crazy he replied, “I am perfect because of transitive property of equality”? What is that asked his friend. The transitive property of equality states that if a = b, and b = c then a= c. WHom that is right said his friend. Well said the crazy man, then “If I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect then that means I am perfect!”

Saying “Nobody’s perfect”

“I am just human”

Just like in anything people abuse the words “nobody’s perfect”. It sets people up to aim low in their job performance or their relationships with other people.

The words nobody’s perfect becomes a cop out, an excuse for bad behavior.

The Nobody’s Perfect Cop Out

Did you know that Jesus said in His Sermon on the mount...

Jesus said: “You must be perfect”!

What did he mean?

Difficult sayings of Jesus - Are sayings that seem difficult to understand but when we study them we realize that the difficulty is not in understanding but more in taking up the challenge that Jesus makes.

Jesus used hard words to soften hearts. You see, a soft word thrown at a hard heart is like throwing peas at a brick wall. Won’t make an impact and therefore Jesus needed to throw these hard words to break down or soften hard hearts.

Like before we’ll study this saying by using three bases:

In studying Jesus’ Difficult Sayings we look at:

The context and background at the time Jesus said those words.

The basis of the rest of scripture.

The basis of Jesus’ Life and character.

3. The basis of Jesus’ Life and character.

We’ll study this saying:

We’ll study this saying:

Students of Christians ethics make a distinction between these two things:

Christian Ethics:

Some Cristians have two standards:

General standards of Christian conduct

Standards of perfection

By doing this, Christians have a double standard in evaluating conduct. There are things that are attainable by common Christians. And there is a certain level of behavior that is flawless and attaining closer to sinless perfection that can be achieved by those who have reached a certain status of “sainthood”.

When we study scripture, we realize that Jesus did not make such distinction.

The distinction that Jesus made was between.

The Standards of Behavior according to Jesus:

The Standards of Behavior according to Jesus:

Worldly Standard

Heavenly Standard.

He talked in terms of:

“You’re either for Me or against Me.”

“You cannot love both God and Money”

“I wish you are either hot or cold.”

We have to make a clear choice..

In short there is no middle place, we take a neutral stand.

“We cannot be Neutral when we hear the challenge of Jesus Christ”.

It seems the more I talk about it..

What makes it even more difficult is that Jesus was not commanding us to be perfect according to the world’s standards but rather. He said “be perfect as My Father in heaven is perfect”.

is about being consistent (alternate word)

In the area of our relationship with our fellowmen..

1. In its Context and Background.

The common response is.. but Jesus said love your enemy..

In the context and Background.

Jesus was talking about our relationship with our fellowmen:

Matthew 5:43 ESV

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

When Jesus taught He started with something that is very familiar to the listeners of that time, in this case He quoted from the Old Testament book of Leviticus.

Jesus talked about loving your enemy..

The people understood from Leviticus, where it teaches “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”.

But where does the Old Testament teach “you shall hate your enemy”? It is not in the book of Leviticus. Was Jesus misquoting scripture?

Notice that Jesus did not say “you have read”, nor did he say “it is written”. Jesus said “you have heard”. Jesus was not quoting what is taught in scriptures but rather talking about how scriptures were being taught and interpreted by the teachers and scribes of His time.

He was correcting their false teaching. In the context of this part of the Sermon on the mount, Jesus was bringing to light the false teachings of the scribes and pharisees and correcting them.

Several verses before this, Jesus said in

Matthew 5:20 ESV

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

So in interpreting the command “love your enemies” from the Book of Leviticus the scribes and the pharisees committed two crucial mistakes:

The reason they are comfortable with it is that they have defined the word “neighbor” according to their convenience..

a. They defined the word “neighbor” in a limited way. Specifically limited only to the children of Israel.

b. They took the opposite of “love” to an extreme.

So according to the scribes and pharisees: “you are only called to love only your own people and you are to hate the rest.

There can never be racism among Christians.

2. The Rest of Scripture.

People in Jesus’ time have defined the word “neighbor” according to their convenience..

In , a lawyer came to Jesus in reference to the same teaching from Leviticus asked Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” (seeking to justify himself..)

Then Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. To the listeners of that time that was a radical idea, that my neighbor is not only “my family, my next of kin, people from my own country”

But Jesus taught...

Our neighbor is anyone who needs God’s mercy.

And who needs God’s mercy? Everyone!

Everyone is my neighbor, I cannot discriminate.

Matthew 5:44–48 ESV

44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

We are called to love everyone.

My neighbor, who yelled at me when my dog barked.

Our neighbor is anyone.

That guy who cut me off on I25 and gave me that obscene gesture?

that narcissist who who annoys me with her postings on Facebook?

The co-worker who secretly undermines my job?

There is a consistency..

Will I love them?

No it’s impossible!

Matthew 19:26 ESV

26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

He revealed the Father..

3. The rest of scripture

Here lies the answer...

Who is your neighbor?

.

Leviticus 22:26-28

3. Jesus’ Nature and Character.

Jesus came to reveal the Father. The Bible says that God is love.

There is no discrimination.

When Jesus said “you must be perfect just as my father in heaven is perfect”. What makes this a difficult saying is our focus on the command in the first part, but we lose sight of the second part: “just as my Father in heaven is perfect”.

When we read into the words of Jesus we read too much on what is there for me? Or what is required of me? Instead of Who is God to Me?

Your Father in heaven is perfect. When He loves He loves completely and perfectly!

The word in the Greek for “perfect” is teleios.

τέλειος - “complete”, “mature”

τέλειος - “complete”, “mature”

We must love completely and maturely, just as God does. We must be merciful to all just as God is merciful to all.

When Jesus said “You must be perfect...”

It is not about our sinless perfection but rather about God’s limitless affection.

‘You must be perfect (all-embracing, without restrictions) in your acts of mercy and kindness for that is what God is like.

So we go back to the claim: “It is impossible for me to love that person”

By our standards of holiness it is impossible, but not with God’s.

God made it possible through Jesus Christ.

Because the mercy, the impossible mercy, forgiveness, grace and love that we deny someone is the same things that we received from God. That otherwise would also be impossible apart from Jesus Christ.

It all goes back to our relationship with Jesus. We have to repent, and receive Him..

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In another part of the Book of Leviticus, God commanded His people “be Holy as I am holy”.. we are made holy in Christ.