I would think that I’m not the only Christian who has felt both convicted and blessed by Jesus’ words “You therefore must yourselves be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Probably the first thing that usually comes to my mind when I hear these words is the concept of God’s holiness; as Leviticus 19:2 says, “You must be holy, for I YHWH your God am holy.” Jesus’ words in Matthew seem to draw on the words of Leviticus. As such we often feel convicted because we are not perfect like our God but blessed as we remember that Jesus has given us perfect standing before God through his righteous obedience. And that is consistent with Jesus’ words earlier in the sermon that “if your righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and pharisees, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 5:20). But in the immediate context of Matthew 5:48 Jesus is talking about love. How does this fit?
Before telling his disciples to be perfect like his heavenly Father, Jesus told them to love their enemies:
You have heard that it was said, “You will love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, so that you will be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for his son he shines upon evil and good, and he rains upon righteous and unrighteous.”
Matthew 5:43–45
This provides the immediate context for his command for his disciples to be perfect. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8) and perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Because God is perfect, it would not be wrong to say God is perfect love, or more theologically that one of God’s perfections is his love.
In Matthew, then, what does Jesus mean when he talks about God’s perfect love? A helpful insight is that a synonym for “perfect” in this context is “complete.”1 We see that God’s love is “complete” in Jesus’ description of how God loves all mankind indiscriminately in common grace ways such as the provision of light and water. God cares for those who are good and evil, for those who love him and hate him. To be like our Father God, we must also reflect this complete divine love, perfect in extending to anyone regardless of how they treat us.
Recognizing that Jesus calls us to love like our Father loves draws the connection to his call to be perfect like our Father is perfect. This is naturally convicting—how is this possible? We have already failed to love people so many times. Yet it is also encouraging; since we know that we only love because we have already experienced God’s love toward us (1 John 4:19), we know that we have assistance from God in our love toward others.
The extensive Christian history of mercy ministry is a reminder that Christians have always strived to meet this ideal. From the first efforts in Acts 6 to better care for widows of Hellenic Jews, to the early church’s calls for social justice for the poor, to the founding of many hospitals across the US and Europe by churches, to the many Christian nonprofits and charities that assist the poor, homeless, incarcerated, etc. today, Christian ministries demonstrate practical expressions of love on both Christians and non-Christians. Like Christians themselves, there are always ways these ministries can improve, but I would encourage all believers to take heart in that mercy ministries point us toward the ideal of showing God’s common grace love to all. Resting in the righteousness of Christ and basking in our received love from the Father, we can comfortably grow in excelling still more toward a perfect love that reflects our God.
1 This is because the Greek word τέλειος has multiple senses including both perfect and complete. Perfect is the better translation in Matthew 5:48 because of Jesus’ arguments throughout the chapter about the law. However, the other sense of the word to mean complete is a reminder that a factor in considering the perfection of God is that he lacks nothing.
Citizens & Sons 