A hard saying if even there was one. How can anyone be perfect, especially perfect as God is perfect?
I wrestled with this saying some weeks ago…wrestled and lost. I thought I had an angle on it but just couldn’t make it work. It was too hard. But after thinking more about it, I’ve arrived at some clarity about what Jesus meant.
“Complete” more than “perfect.” First of all, the word “perfect” here does not mean what we usually think. Jesus taught in the Aramaic language, a sister language to Hebrew, and his words were translated into Greek in the New Testament. And from that Greek we get it translated into English.
The word from which we get “perfect” is the Greek teleios, which come from the root telos. That word does not mean flawlessness, but wholeness or completion. So, we are not talking about flawless perfection but about being complete.
So it’s not an impossibly high standard. It is not an impossible dream that is always out of reach.
But how do we become complete?
We are to be complete as God is complete. In what way is God complete? In what He does as God. One of those things He does is create. Jesus mentions, in this very chapter, things that God had made: salt, light, sun and rain. God makes things. He is fulfilling his place as Creator. God is complete in His God-actions.
Now, just as God is compete in God-actions, we are to be complete in our human actions, namely as human beings who are followers of Jesus.
God is complete as Creator because he actually did it; He didn’t just think about it. He acted.
What makes us complete? Obedience. Just as God was active in creation (and therefore complete as Creator), so we must be complete by acting on what we need to do. And what we need to do, especially when considering the context of the Sermon on the Mount, is to act, to do, to obey, rather than just think about those things. From all appearances, from all the commands (not suggestions), we get a keen sense that obedience is important. Therefore, obedience is the key to being complete. The Sermon on the Mount is the lawbook of Jesus’ kingdom. His followers are enabled and expected to keep them.
The question is: will we? Jesus was against a Christianity that exists only in the clouds or in the mind. He wanted his faith to be lived in real life.
To obey his commands, rather than merely think about them or admire them, is what is missing in the lives of too many Christians. Failure to do this is what keeps them from being complete.
There are plenty of excuses for failing to obey. It’s easier just to think about avoiding sin rather than actually having to do it. There are the big obvious sins like murder and adultery, but we also note that Jesus has taken a hard line on divorce and He re-defined the conditions for the taking of oaths. He spoke not only of loving friends, but enemies too. And even praying for those who persecute you.
Easier to think about than to actually do. But you have to do them, or you won’t be complete–or, considering the imperfect translation of the word into the English, perfect.
We have a confirmation of this important of obedience in Jesus’ other example of the use of the word ‘perfect’. In Matthew 19 a rich, young ruler came up to Jesus, wanting to know how to attain eternal life. After Jesus questioned him about keeping commandments, which the young man said he kept, Jesus identified the sticking point in the man’s life. His weakness was his love of money. So, Jesus told him to do radical surgery: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me,” (vs. 21).
The man didn’t want to do it and went away sorrowful. To be perfect he had to fully obey, but he did not.
The sticking point can vary person to person. Some people have a love of money, some have lust or furious anger, or pride. Whatever it is, you have to deal with it. You have to obey God. We should identify that thing that sticking point and act on it. Take decisive action, even painful action to obey. Without obedience we will never be complete. And, like that rich, young ruler, it may require a painful, costly choice.
Modern Protestant Christianity has some weaknesses. Much of modern-day evangelical faith has fallen into a kind of pious-sounding defeatism. There is constant talk of being “sinners” (present tense) rather than being sinners in the past tense. There is talk of failing all the time. It might sound humble to keep saying “I’m just a sinner” but people might really believe it and consider obedience as unnecessary or an afterthought.
We will never be complete that way. Obedience remains as important and essential. If you don’t have obedience, you will never be complete.
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, it was not only the one hears the words of Jesus who will build their house upon the rock, but those who “hears them and puts them into practice,” (Matthew 7:24). You have to put them into practice. Those are the compete ones.