Be Perfect?

You have heard that it was said.... Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:27, 48

In His mountainside sermon, Jesus repeated one particular phrase six times, " You have heard that it was said...." Jesus preceded His message with the statement that He had not come to abolish the Law of God, but to fulfill it. On the other hand, the Jewish religious leaders had taken the Law of God and modified it in unacceptable ways. To reveal their error, Jesus took six examples of their modifications and then revealed the inadequacy of each one when compared to the intent of God's heart, purposes, and desires.

Whenever anyone attempts to reduce God's perfect standard of holiness to a goal that can be achieved through human effort, he or she reveals his or her own aching need for grace. God's perfect standard was not given so that a person could achieve it, but rather that a person might see his or her inadequacy and cry out for mercy.

Indeed, we must be perfect to please a perfect God, but we can thank that same God for the perfection we receive in Jesus Christ!

"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who apologize" is the way many of us pray the prayer the Lord taught the disciples. Jesus told us to forgive those who trespass. No marriage [or relationship] can survive without forgiveness. - Elisabeth Elliott