The command Jesus gave all Christians in Matthew 5:48 is arguably the most challenging statement our Lord made. Jesus made many significant statements, but this command may be the most difficult to fulfill from a human perspective.
Some Christians believe verse 48 teaches some ‘sinless perfection’ that each Christian will attain in his or her earthly existence. After all, believers are told to be holy as God is holy (Lev. 19:2), and to be blameless (‘perfect’ in KJV) before God (Dt. 18:13). Scripture also tells the reader elsewhere that believers are to be sinless as God is (Lev. 11:44, 20:7, 26; 1 Pet. 1:15, 16).
Nevertheless, in this sermon, Jesus is not referring to believers’ achievement of a sinless state in their earthly lives. He is speaking of Christian ‘maturity,’ not ‘sinless perfection’ (Eph. 4:13). The Greek word translated as ‘perfect’ means complete in all its parts, fully grown and mature, perfect, and complete in Christian character.[i] Jesus did not command nor expect Christians to achieve human sinlessness, which is affirmed by His instruction to His disciples to pray for forgiveness of sins (Matt. 6:12). Why pray for forgiveness if one has become sinless?
Believers are destined to struggle with sin throughout earthly life (Ps. 14:3; Rom. 3:10, 7:14-25) and remain sinners throughout their sanctifying walk (Rom. 3:9).
Some may ask, ‘Then why try to be perfect if we know perfection is an impossible goal?’ However, this is precisely what Christians do. Like Paul (Phil. 3:7-11), they strive to achieve perfection, knowing that such an effort can result in “the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians about his “straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13) even though he was not “already perfect” (Phil. 3:12).
Christians know that the perfection they seek will be theirs in heaven, and their reward for straining forward for this goal will see a great reward in heaven. The fact that a believer’s absolute perfection is not possible in their earthly walk should not deter them from seeking the goal even more. A Christian presses on to make the goal of perfection his or her own “because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil. 3:12b). Believers strive toward perfection because they have a present certainty of the future reality of Jesus, who began a work in them, bringing this salvific work to a glorious conclusion in them on the Last Day (Phil. 1:6; 2 Tim. 4:7, 8).
Those who follow Christ as Lord and Savior are finite beings who can never hope to achieve God’s infinite perfection. However, Jesus teaches in verse 48 and describes in verses 17-47 of chapter 5 the mature (‘perfect’) character of Christians. He uses seven commands to illustrate Christian maturity (or perfection). These commands are found in verses 17-21 (love and keep the Word of God), verses 21-26 (against Anger), verses 27-30 (against Lust), verses 31-32 (against Divorce), verses 33-37 (against Oaths), verses 38-42 (against Retaliation), and verses 43-48 (Love Your Enemies).
Jesus begins His Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, which explain God’s love. In verses 17-48, He describes the mature (‘perfect’) character Christians must possess to proclaim God’s love to the world. One author writes, “God loves me enough to accept me the way I am [the Beatitudes], but God loves me too much to leave me that way [the Commands].”[ii]
Scripture teaches the perfect or complete love of God. Believers cannot be expected to attain God’s perfect love, but they can develop a complete and mature (i.e., perfect in this context) finite love that imitates it. This is what the Pharisees lacked—the love of everyone. Their understanding of Scripture would have been far different if they had love.
God loves everyone, and He bestows various natural blessings upon everyone. Berkhof wrote of this common grace (cf., saving grace) “those general blessings, such as rain and sunshine, food and drink, clothing and shelter, which God imparts to all men indiscriminately where and in what measure it seems good to Him.” We Christians must approach life with this God-like love for everyone patterned after God’s love with a character that produces obedience to God, forgiveness, purity, marital fidelity, honesty, truthfulness, peacefulness, and love. Believers should imitate the love of God, though our love is a mere shadow of God’s divine love. Nevertheless, Scripture teaches that we should be as complete in exhibiting the love of God as a finite being can be.
The perfection taught in Scripture is completeness, or full maturity of love for all that imitates God’s perfect love to the extent possible for finite beings. We are not being taught to achieve divine love because we cannot. God’s perfect love is as complete as possible, and human believers are told to accomplish a similar complete state of love for others in their finite selves.
[i] The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Greek Dictionary of the New Testament (Thomas Nelson 2001), 248.
[ii] Frederick Dale Bruner, “Matthew: A Commentary,” vol. 1 (Eerdmans 2004), 195.
