Today I’d like to share a post by guest writer Teague McKamey. The last time I wrote something on the blog, A Tour of a Secret Garden, I illustrated how nature teaches us something about ‘perfection’ — and that it’s attainable in this life.
Jesus also taught this.
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Matthew 5:48.
But I never realized there’s a specific context to Jesus’ words. It’s shockingly practical. And it wasn’t until I had a difficult ‘lesson on love’ recently, that the Spirit led me to re-read Teague’s article. Suddenly, Jesus’ words came alive. And I had to make a choice to be perfect.
And so I was made perfect – and still am. At least in the challenge I faced. :-)
I hope you also get something out of the article!
In Love,
Pamela
Fair and Balanced
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48)
I don’t know how many times the chill of impossibility has traveled up my spine as I’ve read this verse. PERFECT. BE PERFECT. No way, Jose. (Or in this case, Haysoos).
While I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this verse with a chill, I can tell you it’s the same number of times I’ve read it without connecting it to the verses before it:
“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:44-45).
This context makes all the difference, as context usually does 😉 I’ve known for a long time that “perfect” can also be translated “complete” or “mature.” I like the idea of maturing. Allowing for process is more gracious than a pass / fail word like “perfect.” In the natural, a mature son is probably more like his father than an immature son. So I can see Jesus encouraging me to grow up, to present a clearer image of God the Father.
At the same time, something doesn’t sit quite right with me about that understanding. I wouldn’t say it’s wrong. But it does seem odd to say “be mature as your heavenly Father is mature”; God hasn’t undergone a process of growth like I have.
Back to the context. God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. To give sun or rain only to the good and righteous would be *incomplete*. Jesus tells us to love our enemies so that we will be *complete* like our Father, showing love to good and bad alike.
God is love (1 John 4:16). Nothing is left out of that love. This is so fair and balanced Fox News can’t compare. Jesus is telling us to love completely: friends, enemies, lovers, and liars.
Here’s what’s funny though: Saying, “Be complete” makes me feel better than “Be perfect.” But being complete is no less impossible. Being complete means loving my enemies. We’re back to “No way, Haysoos.”
But I don’t believe Jesus said this so that we’d do our best to fulfill it. I believe He said it so that we would be swamped by its impossibility. His hope is that, as we’re being swallowed by the quicksand of our weaknesses, we would reach out and grab the Vine God is throwing us.
Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me” (John 15:5). On our own, we can do nothing. If I grab onto and graft into the Vine, being complete is possible. Jesus is already the Son who is like His Father. He died for all—friends, enemies, and everything in between. His love is complete.
“No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is complete in us” (1 John 4:12).
By Teague McKamey
Original posting location: https://thevoiceofone.org/2019/02/21/fair-and-balanced/
6 comments
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Thanks for the share, Pamela 😊
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And thank you for the ‘adjustment’!
Very good post, Pamela. I’m wrestling with this myself right now. I don’t know if you have ever seen the documentary called, “The Flat”, but it documents a bizarre friendship between some individual Nazis and individual Jews. Maybe I am so opposed to being friendly with those who wish my demise because of this film. It’s true I loathe the old addage, “ignore it and maybe it will go away”. I do appreciate your post. God bless you,
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This comment is appreciated, Steve. I know you’re not alone in this struggle. We’ve seen the damage that ‘ignoring’ evil can do. Passivity, I know from personal experience, catches up in troublesome and hurtful ways. Having no boundaries and letting evil run rampant over ourselves and others isn’t love. And that’s the challenging balance we seek. To love our enemy is a real choice. It is a choice to not do anything out of base fear or carnal retaliation, but to embrace a noble and godly motivation, purpose, and method to dealing with injustices and bad behavior. It is the most courageous act, love is, to not pay evil with evil, but to do good (whatever that is in each situation). Love is the reaction of a true warrior. Am I good at it? Sadly, not at all. But I want to be a better, ‘perfect’ warrior who stops leaving a trail of blood behind me.
Mature is the word I tend to substitute and think about it in the sense of being like-minded with the Father – i.e., it’s said we’re being renewed with the mind of Christ. About that, a scripture that often comes to my thoughts about ‘context’ as the author put it, is Revelation 22:11 …
Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy. (NIV)
Operative words are “let them”. As often as sinners have tweaked my righteous sensibilities, I’ve wanted them to STOP and look for a stone to throw! The Father doesn’t make them stop – that I get offended has everything to do with my own religious mind – and the part of me that isn’t like-minded with the Father gets exposed by someone’s sin. Ugh. The Father’s advantage of course is that He knows their end – perhaps He knows they’ll turn to Him – or He defers His appointment with them until they’ve exhausted their life and His grace. Wish I could say I’ve never engaged in a Christian jihad to stamp out sin – rather simply “let them” – while coming apart from such and living a quiet life and working with my hands like Paul advocates. There’s such a huge difference between condemning sin and loving sinners. I’m not sure that it isn’t easier to love sinners than the religious (grin). Tough stuff this being God-minded in such matters.
Author
It’s hard for me to not connect everything back to The Song, which is the focus of this blog. So here’s a thought.
The Shulamite woman was called ‘perfect’ by the Beloved for a reason. (4:7) It wasn’t flattery. It was because her heart was consumed with love. We see no ugly spots in her singing parts that suggest she had any fear, bitterness, or unforgiveness.
But think about it. She had multiple reasons to be otherwise. She had brothers who mistreated her. She had women and others who looked down on her for her ‘stigma,’ and shame. Fortunately, for all of us, she didn’t allow her voice to be tainted by these things.
If she had had this imperfection, the song would have a totally different flavor. More whiney, perhaps. More head-based versus heart-based.
Anger and fear, if not brought under the subjection of love, steals any song of its music.