Perfect

Read Matthew 5:43-6:18.

Then, ponder this for a while:
"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

When you think of "perfect," what comes to mind?

All "A's" on a report card?
A perfect "10" score on some athletic event?
A beautiful person?
A chiseled body?
A sunshine-drenched day on a beach with nothing to do?

What is your idea of perfect? Usually, when we hear that word, the ideal of perfection is so unattainable in our minds that we fall back on the trope of "nobody's perfect." We expect people to let us down and we don't expect perfection. From anyone.

Which is why it shocks us when we read that Jesus does.

Be perfect, he says...as your heavenly Father is perfect. And when we read that, we hear, "without flaw, without mistakes, without any sort of blemish. Do everything right the first time." Perfection, in our minds, has to do with performance, ability and achievement. (Why do we always jump to "do"?)

Would it shock you to know that Jesus wasn't talking about that when he said we must be perfect? Would it surprise us to learn he's more concerned with "be" than "do"?

Look at the context of this statement. (Remember—a text without a context becomes a pretext for a prooftext.) The whole conversation around this statement has to do with love. Jesus transitions to this part of the sermon with this statement: "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" (5:43-44), and then he tells us why we should love those enemies: "that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (5:45). Is there anyone more like a parent than the child? (The older I get, I've realized, the more I become like my parents.) If we are going to be called children of the Father in heaven, we ought to be those who are becoming more and more like him. His nature, Jesus says, is to love even those who are enemies, those who hate him. Loving those who love us is easy, he says, but loving those who hate us—that's when we become most like the Father.

That's the nature of real perfection—not perfection in action, but perfection in love. It's growing more and more like our heavenly Father until we are made, to use John Wesley's words, "perfect in love." We move toward perfection every time we choose to love the hateful, to love the unloveable, to love the enemy. It's a choice, and as we choose to love, it shapes our character and makes us more like the Father. That's Jesus' call to us. So whom can you choose to love today?

Oh, and May the Fourth Be With You!