-- Saturday, 7/30/11 -- BE PERFECT - Matthew 5:43-48
J.R. & Bonnie Ricks
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BE PERFECT – Matthew 5:43-48
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Wow! That’s a tough thing to do. No, it’s worse than that… That’s an impossible thing to do! Why would Jesus tell us to do something that is impossible for us to do?
Those are the thoughts that went through my head the first time I read this verse. How could Jesus be telling me to be perfect? He knows I can’t do that! But that was before I learned that Jesus didn’t throw sentences out into the air that had no relationship to the things He’d just said. That was before I understood that nothing Jesus said was said in a vacuum. That was before I learned that the only way to understand the true meaning of any verse in the Bible is to read it in context… in other words, to read the entire portion of scripture that surrounds a particular verse. That’s before I learned to read Jesus’ words in their entirety…
Throughout the 5th chapter of Matthew, Jesus has been making one point after another. In His eloquent yet brief, almost journalistic style, Jesus has been driving home the deep concepts He is trying to convey – showing us the spirit of the law, rather than the Pharisaical demands for the letter of the law. Let’s just look at the first 27 verses of Matthew 5. In verses 21-26, He talks about murder. In verses 27-32, adultery is the subject. In verses 33-37, He speaks of taking oaths. In verses 38-42, He teaches forgiveness instead of revenge. And now, in verses 43-48, He is speaking about love, and specifically, about love for our enemies.
With each subject, He began His commentary with “you have heard that it was said” (verses 21, 27, 31, 33, 38, & 43). He gave the true meaning of what they had “heard that it was said,” beginning with “but I tell you” (verses 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, and 44). Then, with some subjects, He would then summarize what he was saying, using the word “therefore” (verses 23 & 48). With that in mind, read the entire passage…
"You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons 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. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Suddenly, that verse takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? Jesus isn’t telling us that we have to be perfect people, something that is impossible for us to attain. Instead, in these few verses, Jesus is giving us the standard God wants us to reach for – the standard for displaying His perfect LOVE. Jesus is telling us to seek to love others in the same way that the Father loves us… unselfish love… selfless love… love that can care for an enemy… love that can pray for those who treat us badly… love that puts the other person first and ignores our own feelings… love that seeks to be perfect, just as our Father’s love is perfect.
This is something we CAN do, with God’s help. Parents display this type of love for their children every day. And if a person can give unconditional love to a child, then that same person can give unconditional love to others, including his enemies. Yes, it takes commitment… and a lot of prayer… but you CAN do it. We all can.
Commit today to begin conveying God’s perfect love to others – including your enemies – through your words and actions… and, most of all, in your prayers.
All Bible quotes contained in these devotionals are from the New International Version 1984 (NIV1984), unless otherwise specified.
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