Jesus said, “You,
therefore, are to be perfect – as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
—
Matthew 5:48
(USC)
Discipleship – a much confused word – is confused in this statement of
Jesus’, surely? For, discipleship is as much, and more, about progress in the
Christian life as it is about perfection. But there is one perfection that
Jesus has in sight in this teaching.
Perhaps Jesus can be
imagined to say, “Be perfect... in purity of heart... in lowness of spirit...
as a peacemaker... as your heavenly Father is perfect in that way.”
Maybe this ending of
chapter 5 is simply a hearkening of the believer back to its beginning; to the
Beatitudes of verses 3-12?
All of chapter 5
seems to be about the heart of matters. All of what Jesus says in verses 20–48
seems to transcend the Law, which doesn’t make the Law unimportant or
insignificant.
We are to meet the Law,
but our hearts are to underpin it. We are not to apply the Law without caring
how or why.
To do what is right
in the eyes of God we need to think in ways that bless the community. We are
never apart from our human relations. We are human because of them!
So perfection in
spiritual terms so far as the Lord is concerned is not about being faultless of
deeds, but it’s about being faultless of heart – an achievable idea only when
we rely upon, and have surrendered obediently, to our Lord.
What is our task? We
miss the point if we think in terms of task.
Connecting the dots
is contingent on being not doing. But in being our doing is massively
influenced. Our attitudes dictate – to a great degree – our actions. We cannot
divorce the two; attitudes and actions.
Being perfect as our
heavenly Father is perfect simply means this: obey without thought, ply faith
without hesitation, and God’s Spirit will direct one’s path in the perfection
of a single action.
Our only task is to
believe – once we obey, belief is possible.
***
The end is at the
beginning. Perfection is achieved in the simplest event of doing the will of
God. Nothing is better.
If we do the will of
God we have perfected our relation to the moment.
When we string
moments together like this we are perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
There is but one difference; we are the vassal. We are forever needy of the
discernment of God’s will – and perfection is to do that which God would have
us do.
Perfection in God’s
economy is no impossible thing.
***
QUESTIONS in REVIEW:
1. Is it true that you have fallen
for the romantic idea that perfection was possible? But how is Jesus’
perfection an upside down perfection?
2. The Christian life of
discipleship is much less about trying
and much more about training. What
are you able to deduce from such an idea for your own journey of following
Jesus?
© 2015 S. J. Wickham.
Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English
(2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT
Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.
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