Be Ye Perfect

Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). What does Jesus mean when he says be perfect?

Psychological perfection is trying to live up to a high ideal. It is about trying to do good and to do very little wrong. Since no one achieves perfection, this path leads to living an illusion and self-condemnation, often assisted by the devil. It is the path to anxiety and the crushing of self-respect. Many people are in this position in life. Some try to deaden their conscience by celebrating and continuing to do what is wrong and often glorifying in it. (Romans 1:32) As the Bible says, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2).

We may have had parents, our father or mother or both were perfectionists, and nothing you did was good enough. There was supposedly a lot of constructive criticism, but not any or very, very little affirmation or praise. Some people can bear up under the load and develop a self-talk that counters all this negativity. Others are crushed under the load and struggle to implement a self-talk that is healing and not overreactive. Truth in balance is the way to healing and truthful self-talk, and this is most realized in Jesus Christ.

Some have a huge misunderstanding of God and his ways. They think that by trying to do good and trying not to do wrong, that their good will outweigh their bad, and therefore they will deserve heaven. However, by our own goodness, not one enters heaven. We only enter heaven and taste heaven here because God offers us grace, which is undeserved favour, because God loves you and wants you to have eternal life now and forever. Jesus took the penalty for our sin and its corruption, and in him and by his grace we can be transformed within and thus on the outside as well. Most importantly, we will not go to hell but to heaven. This is only possible in and through Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord. In Christ, we experience Christ’s perfection or righteousness transferred to our account so we can have loving fellowship with the only holy, good, and just God. As God’s word says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The Christian life is not so much us trying to keep the law and to do good and not evil, it is a life that flows out of a love relationship with God in and through Jesus. We are now living out what God has done within. Because we truly love him, we trust that God is completely good and therefore can be absolutely trusted. His way is also of the utmost good and healing of the soul. As well, because we love him, we want to please him and, we want to be like him in character. His wants become our wants, because they are the way to life and love, and we want to honor him. He is holy and just; therefore, we have great respect for him. He is the ideal. There is no higher ideal. To live fully is to be in complete union with him. When we are in union with him, and we want what he wants and desire what he desires. Too many Christians are saved by grace and then go back to try to live by and in the law. The law is a guide, but not the way to live in grace.

Many Christians also want to clean up the outside only and to leave the inside unpurified. It is similar to what Jesus said to the corrupt religious leaders of his day. Jesus said, “ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Matthew 13:25-33).

Christians may live by the law instead of in Christ. Being transformed into Christlikeness comes out of a true love relationship with the living God. The law tells us what is right and wrong but does not convert the heart. If we live under the law we will be harsh on ourselves and others. We will not practise the grace of God. Grace lived out is the ability to be and do what is within ourselves; we cannot do or be. The Apostle Paul says we are free of the law as a way of salvation and as the way to Christian Biblical Spiritual Transformation. Romans 7 describes the natural man who is not able to do what only grace empowers us to be and do. Even if man had never sinned, they would have lived by grace. Grace restores the image of God and our souls. (Psalm 23:3)

Perfection is the ideal and only Jesus lived it out fully. When we shoot for the ideal there is no excuse for sin. However, God is not requiring us to be perfect to be loved by him in Christ, just to be and do better. To go for the best. Too often people lower the standards so they can feel better about themselves and often raise the standards for others.

Jesus said, “Be like my Father.” In heaven, Christians will be without sin and its presence and power. To be without sin is the level of perfection that people move toward and in heaven experience fully. None of us can be God. This perfection is reserved for God only. We can be spiritually, morally and lovingly be like Jesus. This is a very worthy goal. If you know the goal and the Biblical balance, it leads to the fullness of life that God wants for us, and that brings the greatest joy and healing. However, it is not the easy road. If you want to be a slacker, this is not the road you will want to take.

The Apostle Paul knew how to put it all together as he said, “ Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” Philippians 3:12-16).

Love Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and you will be perfect. Then you will truly love others God’s way.