The universal excuse for personal failure is hard to argue with as the evidence is so overwhelming: "Nobody's perfect!" OK, I made a mistake, I dropped the ball, I crossed the line becasue I'm not perfect. And, by the way, neither are you. I might add, people who claim to be perfect are very annoying to those of us who actually are - kidding!
It is so universally understood that it hardly needs mention. And the Bible adds the final nails to the argument in saying, "No one is righteous, not even one" (Rom 3:10) and "All sin and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). Truly, nobody is perfect - end of story. Except that...
Except that Jesus said, "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48). Really? Really! It's in there, check it out for yourself. Desite all the reality checks and the definitive biblical statement, seemingly to the contrary, we are called to be perfect. But how? How is it possible for those who can neither be righteous or sinless to be perfect? I'm glad you asked.
The call to be perfect is not one to moral absolutism but rather one to a specific character trait and course of action. Matthew 5:48 is not given in a vacuum nor was it sent on a postcard, it was delivered in, not just a sermon, but in The Sermon on The Mount. The confines of this call to be perfect are found in the words leading up to it: "...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (vv. 45-46).
To be a child of God, one in whom His image is seen, one must love even those who are hard to love or who seem impossible to love - our enemies, those who actively try to harm us. This seems so counterintuitive, so other than the way we are wired as humans. It is. It is beyond human, it is divine to love like this. It is a love born out of a perfect heart rather than our own. It is the perfection to which we are called. Jus' Sayn.
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