Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
6 sermons cite this verse
… Here's the conclusion of what I'm saying. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. To which we're all like, well, I'm out, right? I mean, I can't be perfect compared to anybody else. I'm supposed to be perfect compared to God. But the little Greek word translated perfect in these two places is actually the Greek word teleos. Be teleoi, therefore, as your father in heaven is teleos. And what it's referring to is not perfection in terms of having no imperfection. What it refers to is the idea of being complete or, as we're going to see, mature. Then the apostle Paul comes along. The apostle Paul wrote about half the New Testament. The apostle Paul took the teaching of Jesus and he teases it out and he applies it for non-Jewish people, people like us, most of us, Gentiles. And lo and behold, read all of his letters. The apostle Paul never calls people to spirituality either. In fact, in 1 Corinthians, his letter to Christians living in Corinth, he actually chastises the people in that church for their pseudo-spirituality because they'd kind of created their own idea of here's what makes a person spiritual. …
What did Jesus say? I want you to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. So if you say, look, I'm the externals. I got it together. I'm not doing these bad things. Yeah, but on the inside, remember what he says to the Pharisees? Yeah, you're great on the outside, but you're like whitewashed sepulchers because on the inside, you're full of all filth and dead men's bones. You see, that's what he's driving at here is, my life can look pretty good on the outside, but my motivations and my feelings and my interiority is kind of an unloving mess. No, no, let your choice for the good go all the way down. You know, God is not interested in spiritual mediocrity. Heaven is the place of perfect love. It's perfect love. Well, this life is a training ground. It's a preparation. Let's get started. Choose the good. And God bless you.
… And so, what's the standard? Well, the standard appears in verse 48. You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Now, the word that's translated perfect here is a word that elsewhere in the New Testament we would translate mature. It almost means growing up. And we might think that's what he means. He doesn't really mean that we should be perfect. It just means that we should be grown up, you know, that we should be generous, like grown ups should be generous and not like children always bickering over who wants what. But the fact of the matter is that the Heavenly Father is perfect. It's not just that he's mature, that he's older than we are, and he's been around the block. It is that he is absolutely perfect, and he shows that perfection in his generosity even to his enemies. And Jesus is saying to us, actually, that is the standard. A man who is a minister, a first minister of the church that we belong to in Scotland, Robert Murray McChain, once wrote in his diary by way of prayer, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be. …
… in verse 48 of chapter 5. You're to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Oh, that puts an end to any works system. No, you have to be perfect. You can't do that, but you can receive the righteousness of God by faith in Christ. So what was Jesus' view of Scripture? Well, He believed in its preeminence, its permanence, and its definitive importance to determine eternal reward. And he believed every bit of it was true, down to every dot and marking. Still people say this, well, certainly there are errors in Scripture. Really. this poses a devastating problem. If there are errors in Scripture, if there are errors in Scripture, then Jesus didn't know that. He didn't know that, because He said, down to the dots and the squiggles. Not one marking is anything other than divine revelation to be consummated and fulfilled. He didn't know that. He was mistaken. If you have a mistake in Jesus, Christianity collapses. If you have a mistake in Jesus, then He is a liar. …
… Well, you say, Pastor, didn't Jesus say, be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect? Yes, he said that. But even there, the word telos does not mean without fault. It has the idea of being complete. It has the idea of being whole. whole. It has the idea of wholesome. It has the idea of maturity. Friend, Jesus supplies the only perfection that you will ever attain until you get to heaven, and you need to understand that it is not perfection that God is looking for in his children. It is excellence. If you're enjoying this message from Adrian Rogers and would like to dig a little deeper into today's topic, download this free companion Bible study. Use the link above to get yours. LET ME TALK TO YOU A LITTLE BIT ABOUT, UH, THE, THE, THE REVELATION OF PERFECTIONISM, THE MARK, UM, THE MARKS OF IT. YOU WANT TO TAKE A TEST? WANT TO SEE WHETHER YOU'VE GOT IT? OKAY, LET'S TAKE A TEST. NOT EVERYBODY DOES, BUT A GREAT NUMBER OF PEOPLE HERE, UH, HA, HA, HA, HA, AND THE MAN BEHIND THE, THE PULPIT THIS MORNING HAS A, A STRONG TENDENCY TOWARD IT. ALL RIGHT, NOW, NOW LISTEN, LISTEN. LET ME GIVE YOU SOME, TEST. NUMBER ONE, ARE YOU AN IDEALIST OR ARE YOU A REALIST? THE PERFECTIONIST IS AN IDEALIST. THE PERSON WHO HAS EXCELLENCE IS A REALIST. NOW JESUS, JESUS WAS NOT AN IDEALIST. HE WAS A REALIST. I MEAN, HE KNEW HUMAN NATURE. AND, UH, AND HE SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES, …
… THEM WHICH DESPITEFULLY USE YOU AND PERSECUTE YOU, THAT YE MAY BE THE CHILDREN OF YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN, FOR HE MAKETH HIS SON TO RISE ON THE EVIL AND ON THE GOOD, AND SENDETH RAIN ON THE JUST AND ON THE UNJUST. FOR IF WE, FOR IF YE LOVE THEM WHICH LOVE YOU, WHAT REWARD HAVE YE? DO NOT EVEN THE PUBLICANS THE SAME? AND IF YE SALUTE YOUR BRETHREN ONLY, WHAT DO YE MORE THAN OTHERS, DO NOT EVEN THE PUBLICAN SO. BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT," AND THE WORD THERE PERFECT MEANS MATURE, BE YE THEREFORE MATURE, PERFECT, EVEN AS YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT. NOW THE KEY TO LIVING WITH A SMILE IS A CHRIST-CENTERED LIFE. THE KEY TO LIVING A CHRIST-CENTERED LIFE IS FIRST OF ALL EMPTYING YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR OWN SELF LIFE. EVEN GOD CANNOT FILL THAT WHICH IS ALREADY FULL, SO THE, UH, CHRIST-FILLED LIFE IS THE SELF-EMPTIED LIFE. SO MANY OF US ARE SO FULL OF SELF. AND AS A WISE MAN SAID, A MAN WRAPPED UP IN HIMSELF MAKES A VERY SMALL PACKAGE. I WANT YOU TO THINK WITH ME NOW ON THIS PRINCIPLE, A PRINCIPLE OF LIVING, SELFLESS LIVING, JOYFUL LIVING, CHRIST-FILLED LIVING, THE PRINCIPLE OF THE SECOND MILE. AND REMEMBER THIS, IT'S THE SECOND MILE THAT BRINGS THE SMILE. I HAVE THREE THINGS I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE SECOND MILE THIS MORNING, AND I PRAY GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL NOT ONLY WRITE THEM IN YOUR NOTES, BUT WRITE THEM ON …