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You Must Be Perfect

What comes to your mind when you hear the following words of Jesus (Yeshua)?

“You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
(Luke 6:36 & Matthew 5:48)

The opening phrase -- “You must be perfect. . .” -- has generated many debates over the centuries and caused a great deal of confusion and guilt. The dictionary definition for the word “perfect” that comes to most peoples’ minds is usually “completely free from faults or defects.”

Obviously, that’s a high goal to try to reach, but when you add the second phrase – “. . . as your heavenly Father is perfect” – the goal goes much higher. Did Jesus really expect anyone listening to him to “be as perfect as God”?

Dr. David Flusser (Jesus © 1997 The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; p. 83) places the words of Jesus in their first century cultural and historical setting to unlock the meaning of this very important teaching of Jesus.

The best way of translating this saying is:

“There must be no limit in your goodness,
as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds.”

Matthew 5:48 is merely the conclusion to a short homily where Jesus teaches that God reaches out in love to all people, regardless of their attitude and behavior toward Him:

“. . . for He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

In this Jesus is not far from the humane attitude of other Jews. R. Abbahu said:

“Greater is the day of rainfall, than the day of resurrection.
For the latter benefits only the pious, whereas the former benefits pious and sinners alike.”

R. Abbahu lived about 300 CE, but there is a similar saying dating from Jesus’ time. Thus, it is no wonder that in such a spiritual atmosphere Jesus drew his daring conclusion:

“Love your enemies!”
(Matthew 5:44).

In other words:

“Return love to those who hate you.”
or
“Do good to those who hate you.”
(Luke 6:27).

Keep in mind that for the “Jesus of history”, Yeshua, “love was an action, not an emotion.” Did Jesus expect to have a bunch of perfect followers? Not anymore that he expected to have a bunch of followers that never became angry. In both teachings he used something that grabbed the audience’s attention.

Take another look at the examples Jesus gave of “God’s love” – sunshine & rain. This reveals a key insight – make doing acts of love (acts of righteousness, acts of TOV) a normal part of your life, practice doing them and you will become better (more perfected).

Shalom,
Jim Myers


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