Be Perfect

My students often ask me if I’m going to “grade on a curve,” that is, if I plan to make the top student grade equal to 100 percent and “curve” them from there. This type of grading allows more students to “earn” higher grades.

Sometimes we act as if God is going to “grade on a curve,” giving us extra points for effort or participation. Today’s verse teaches otherwise. God’s standard is perfection. Matthew chapter 5 and its Jesus-raises-the-bar commands reach a climax in His humbling and impossible command, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v. 48). Virtually every English translation says “perfect,” though a few commentators recommend “mature” instead. One wisely suggests “perfectly mature.”

One source notes that the word “perfect” used of God echoes the word “holy” as in Leviticus 11:44: “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” Both “holy” and “perfect” are used so as to indicate not a specific attribute but God’s overall perfection.

What are we to do with this command? First, we admit that we have no chance of obeying it in our own strength. Second, we should recognize the connection to our salvation, which we receive by being credited with Jesus’ perfection. Third, we might understand from the alternate translation “mature” or “perfectly mature” that obedience is a process of growth. Fourth and finally, it might be better to see this verse as a promise as well as a command. Some translators render the opening phrase “You shall be perfect” or “You are going to be perfect.”

God will keep this promise of perfection as He sanctifies us! One day all the redeemed, all citizens of the kingdom of heaven, will live as the Sermon on the Mount describes.

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