Truth 18

Be Perfect

We finish our series on Truth with the last verse of Matthew 5.  It doesn't seem to be attached to any of the previous statements on the law.  It seems that it stands alone as reminder of what we must aspire to be as followers of the Almighty.  Let's examine it as we close this series on living the commands of God with Truth and Love.

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

Perfect is impossible for man to accomplish.  Nobody has ever reached perfection in any endeavor.  There has never been a perfect musical performance, athletic feat, governance, relationship, and the list can go on and on. Every act of humanity has come with flaws.  It's what makes us the corrupted creation.  However, Christ commands us to be perfect.  How can we accomplish this?

Perfect=Complete
The term perfect here means complete.  Complete in what, though? Strong's Concordance defines it as complete in our pursuit of moral character and integrity.  This goes along with what Christ has said both in the Beatitudes and His talks on the Law.  God has called us to live a life of moral character and integrity.  When we start living the Beatitudes and the Law as we have examined these last 6 weeks, we will find ourselves complete in Him.  God is perfect because He is all of the things Christ talked about in Matthew 5.  We become perfect when we endeavor to implement them into our lives. 

More Than Just Passion
It's no coincidence that this passage occurs after Christ has laid the groundwork for what it means to be a follower of God.  The idea of completion and perfection  is one that many people desire but few are willing to pursue.  As Christians, it is a prerequisite to living in the Kingdom that we have a completion and perfection mindset.  We must desire to implement all of what God has handed down into our lives.  To put each of His commands, prescriptions and edicts into our lives must become our greatest goal.  It will take more than just passion, though.  We must decide that every day we will look to implement what we have achieved and learned and look to learn and implement more of God.  That's being a completion and perfection minded saint. 

Being Before Living
If we look forward into the next 2 chapters of Matthew, there is a lot of talk about what a follower of Christ does.  However, in order to live as a true Christian, one must be willing to master the art of being a true Christian.  Our giving, praying, interacting with others, witnessing and other efforts in God's Kingdom will not be successful if we don't get this first chapter right.  We must have the Beatitudes fully ingrained in our lives and His Truth etched into every fiber of our being.  Otherwise, our efforts in this life will feel hollow and show little returns.  If we wonder why we don't see people filling our churches.  If we wonder why Bible Studies are becoming an abandoned form of witnessing.  If we wonder why we can't even bring ourselves to share our faith. If we wonder any of these questions about ourselves, we must return to Matthew 5 and work to find perfection anew.  Only then will we feel fulfilled and confident in our efforts in God's Kingdom.

We hope that this series has been a blessing to all of you and we thank everyone who has come along with us on this journey to fulfilling God's plan in our lives.  We believe that this series can and will inspire people to be the Christians they need to be so that they can live the lives that Christ wants them to live.  God bless you all and keep searching.