All these years later, I recall looking out of the subway window in Virginia and thinking to myself: “That’s impossible. Nobody is perfect.” Yet then I pondered the question: If perfection is impossible, why would Jesus command it?
This was after reading the statement by Jesus: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). That statement is the pinnacle there in the middle of what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
Since that time, I have grown in my conviction that for people who follow Jesus, we are being “sanctified,” being made more like Jesus. I have written in my journal many times: “The perfection process is a painful process, yet the perfection process leads to goodness.” And when we are with God in full in heaven, we will be perfect.
Perfection in American culture in this day and age is often thought of in terms of academics or athletics. But all people have different passions and different gifts and different abilities and different limitations. Academics or athletics is not what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5:48. I think Christians should be having more fun within the realms of academics and athletics, because it is not the foundation of our dignity. Our dignity should come from the condition of our heart.
Yes the perfection Jesus is referring to involves the heart. Jesus stated: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39).
Just as I thought on that subway many years ago, this sounds impossible. Pondering this call, I realize one thing: The only way I can truly love is if I am completely dependent on God. God is love (I John 4:16). Truly loving God and truly loving all people is possible only by relying on Jesus, the One who has perfectly loved all of us all along.
Indeed Jesus got to the core of the Mosaic Law as He quoted the statement in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. A key purpose for all those laws and regulations in the Torah was so people would stop doing wrong, since doing wrong results in hurt for someone in some way. Thus doing bad stuff is not loving people. A parallel key purpose for the Mosaic Law was to lead people to recognize we need help from God in order to be saved from the sins we have done, and we need help from God to enable us to obey Him. The teaching of Jesus, the Savior, in the Sermon on the Mount permanently solidified our absolute need to rely on Jesus in order to truly love all people.
Hunter Irvine
