The Impossible Imperative?

February 11, 2001

TEXT: MATTHEW 5:43-48

LISTENING TO THE TEXT
"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (v. 48). What is the meaning of Jesus' words? Is He calling His disciples to a morally flawless life? Is He calling for lives without mistakes or imperfections? What is Christian perfection all about?

The word here that Jesus uses for "perfect" is from the Greek word telios. It's a commonly used word in the New Testament and has several possible meanings. It is a word that identifies time. But in regard to human beings it literally means mature, complete, and full-grown.

Luke uses telios to talk about fruit coming to maturity and of a race being finished. The Gospel of John uses it to describe the fully realized unity of Jesus' followers. The Book of James uses telios to characterize good works as the completion of our faith. The apostle Paul employs the word over and over to talk about maturity among Christian believers (Ephesians 4:13; Philippians 3:12-15). So telios could even mean "perfectly mature."

From the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has made it clear that mature disciples practice righteousness, which always has to do with seeing other people from God's point of view. Jesus' call to perfection comes within the context of our relationships! Loving and praying for our enemies is a major change of perspective that sees them from God's point of view.

Christian perfection is not about cleaning up our lives and putting ourselves on a moral shelf above everyone else. Christian perfection is about loving God and other people! We are most like our Heavenly Father when we are in right relationship with one other. Conversely, we are least like God when we are in fractured and broken relationships.

For that very reason John Wesley talked about entire sanctification and holy living in terms of "perfect love." Not perfect judgment, not perfect performance, not perfect actions, but perfect love!

Telios is not only a vertical word but also a horizontal word. It is not measured by the height to which we climb to God, it is the breadth by which we embrace the people around us. Jesus calls His disciples to horizontal holiness! "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (Matthew 9:13) is yet another way to say that God's desire is social maturity and Christlike relationships that indicate we are "children of [our] Father in heaven" (5:45).

ENGAGING THE TEXT
The Need
At first glance Jesus' exhortation borders on the absurd. He is asking mere mortals to act like God! How is it possible for vulnerable, finite, mortal human beings to be perfect even as God is perfect?

God's Answer
We are "children of [our] Father in heaven." In the first century for someone to be called a "son" or "daughter" was a figurative way of saying that a person shared the quality of someone or something. It was a way of describing the nature of someone.

James and John were known as the "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17). That tells you a little bit about their personality. Barnabas was known as the "Son of Encouragement" (Acts 4:36). Both designations referred to a dimension of their personalities. To become a son or daughter of God was to participate in His divine nature. And what is God's nature? Unconditional love.

It's not that our holiness is to be identical with God's holiness. That would be impossible! But as sons and daughters of God, the way we love is to correspond with His nature and to have His likeness.

The Sermon on the Mount is not just some new and more stringent rules for people to try to live out. Finally, it is Jesus trying to give us a picture of the way God is! We are forever being confused into thinking that God's Word is primarily about what we are supposed to do rather than a description of who God is.

If Jesus were only saying that turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) is a useful way for bringing out the best in other people, then we could say that Jesus was being a little naive about the way the world works. If Jesus had argued that it makes good sense to make peace with someone who has wronged you, because if you do, it will bring out the best in the other person, then you could say that Jesus didn't have a good grasp of human nature. If Jesus had guaranteed that loving our enemies would make them our friends, then we'd have to say that Jesus himself failed at that.

But Jesus never said these are the things that work. He's saying that this is the way God is. Disciples turn the other cheek, go the second mile, cherish purity, and remain faithful to our vows because that's the way God is!

Our Response
"Perfect love" isn't a new strategy for manipulating people. It is the only manner of life available, now that in Jesus Christ, we have seen what God is really like. We seek reconciliation with our neighbor, not because it works, but because reconciliation is what God is doing in the world through Christ.

Our call is to Christian maturity as expressed through perfect love. Perfect love is looking at every person we meet through the eyes of Jesus and saying, "God helping me, I will never do anything to hurt you. I will not angrily lash out at you, lustfully use you, faithlessly leave you, verbally deceive you, protectively strike back at you, or justifiably hate you.

Perfect love is saying: "By the grace of God, I will love you as I have been loved." That is the essence of a disciples' response to the call for Christian perfection.

PREACHING THE TEXT
A major congregational block for many people will be the phrase "nobody's perfect." Perfection is a word for math problems and test scores but not to apply to people. Yet, perfection is a biblical word, and the preacher cannot afford to do away with it.

A common practice in preaching is to set up "straw men" in the sermon: those erroneous ideas or false perceptions that the sermon sets up, in order to later be torn down, making way for the real truth. A good "straw man" for this sermon might be to play off the idea "nobody's perfect" (e.g., Tiger Woods still slices an occasional drive; Monet didn't paint exact water lilies; Babe Ruth didn't hit a home run every at bat).

These examples would open up a way to clarify the meaning of telios to the congregation. It will help them not only to understand what biblical perfection is but also to know what it isn't. Of course, we can never be as God in relation to His power. But because we have been adopted into His family, we can be like God as we interact with people in agape ways. Christian perfection is possible; it is realized whenever our relationships come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Analogies of real people where "perfect love" has been exhibited in relationships will provide helpful windows into the truth of this text.