Week 21—Friday Matthew 5:43-48
Matthew 5:43-48
THE CONTEXT SAYS: “BE PERFECT IN LOVE”
The statement “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father . . . is perfect,” means at first sight idealism, but it is realism since we are made by our very makeup for perfection. Perfection is our life prayer, our deepest life urge. As a British psychiatrist, mentioned before, says, “Man is made for conversion,” so we are made for perfection. But to put it that way is to take it out of its setting and to put the emphasis on isolated perfection, which would make the perfection self-conscious and tend toward Phariseeism. This perfection here is perfection “as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”—it is perfection related to the heavenly Father. And the perfection of the heavenly Father is interpreted by the life and character of Jesus. It is not perfection in power and wisdom, it is perfection in love. That is the heart of the revelation of the Father as seen in Jesus Christ. It culminated in the statement: “God is love.”
The word “therefore” corroborates this: “Be ye therefore perfect.” The “therefore” points back to the preceding verses where it speaks of loving your enemies, turning the other cheek and going the second mile. Since God makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain on the just and unjust, you are to treat your enemies the same. And if you do, you are fulfilling this command: “Be ye therefore perfect.”
The word “as” does not mean “as” perfect as God is perfect, but it could be translated “since”—“since” your Heavenly Father is perfect as God, so you are to be children of your Father, perfect as children in love as the Father is perfect as God in love. That is possible, for it is possible to have a perfect attitude of love though not perfect in the manifestation of that attitude.
O Jesus, we thank you that we can be perfect in love, for we can love with your love and that love is perfect. When it gets through the stream of our lives it may not be perfect manifestation, but the love is perfect for it is yours. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: It is always open to me to love with the love of Christ when I cannot love with my own.