BE PERFECT !

When our Lord Yashua, Jesus from Nazareth, walked on this earth, He set forth some commands for us to follow. Each time He gave a directive He was revealing the culture of the Kingdom of God. One of those is from Matthew chapter five.

Matthew 5:48 (NASB)

“Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

When we read these words our minds immediately hit a brick wall, “That is impossible.” Be perfect? How could that even begin to be fulfilled? After all what does perfect mean?

According to Webster’s dictionary perfect means:

“Without fault, flawless or without defect. Satisfying all requirements, accurate. Corresponding to an ideal standard or abstract concept. Faithfully reproducing the original. Legally valid. Pure, Complete, mature”

The Greek word here is: Teleios

This is an adjective that is defined as:

“Finished, brought to completion. Fully grown, or of full age, mature”

This begins to open a whole new way of thinking! When our Lord gave this exhortation we can only wonder how could we possible be perfect as our Heavenly Father? We then wonder, "perfect in what way?" If we look at the context of this scripture it begins to become clear that He is talking about love!

This reveals even greater insight into what Paul was saying in Ephesians 4:15-16

           

 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

The Lord began His public teaching by introducing humanity to the nine Beatitudes. This corresponds to the nine commandments of moral conduct that still apply to us today. The bridge between the two lists is the Sabbath day. And the Lord makes it clear He is the Sabbath rest! Just as God revealed Himself in thunder and lightning, smoke and fire on Mount Sinai, God again revealed Himself in the Sermon on the Mountain. In both cases God was speaking. The people at Mount Sinai could not handle the pure reality revealed in the voice of God. They asked that only Moses speak to them. On Mount Sinai, the finger of God wrote the standard for Holiness. When God again wrote on the ground with His finger before accusers of the adulteress, the people again fell under the conviction of God’s Holiness realizing they fell far short of His standard.

We see in Matthew 5:43-48, Perfection was in the context of LOVE!

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may   be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

We will see the sons and daughters being revealed not by power or by might but by the Holy Spirit and the love we have matured into. This is part of the answer to the petition:

Psalm 25:4 

Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.

All of creation is longing for the sons and daughters to learn love, live love and reveal love.

Romans 8:19 

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

Who among us would dare or even try to be perfect according to this world system? There have been those who have tried in every way to never say the wrong thing, think the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing. There are those who have tried with all the human effort they could muster and ended up falling apart.  We are not perfect in human terms; however, we are called to become perfect in love. This is why the fivefold ministry was given to the Body of Christ.

Ephesians 5:11-15

 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,

Why did He give the five-fold ministry?

1.     So that each individual disciple would be equipped to fulfill their assignment in the Body of Christ.

2.     So that the Body of Christ would be built up.

3.     His goal for every believer, disciple of Jesus is to come into unity.

4.     So that we would attain to true knowledge of Jesus Christ.

5.     So that we would all reach full maturity

6.     So that we could reach the complete fullness, lacking nothing in Christ

7.     So that we would become stable and not blown about by every scheme and tactic of the evil one and this world system orchestrated by satan.

8.     So that we would have sound teaching that becomes the substance or our convictions and truth. Free of the religious spirit so active today that wants to keep us, almost in the will of God, almost in the Kingdom of God.

9.     So that we would all grow up in every regard, united with the Head, and responding as one new man.

The key here is that we speak the truth that encourages, builds up, edifies each individual in the Body of Christ. As Graham Cook is want to say, “This does not mean pointing out each other’s faults in a nice way.” This means we speak to the true person inside each of us created in purity, to respond to the identity, purpose, and destiny recording in our book. Psalm 139 declares He not only wrote a book about us, He thinks about us constantly. We also come to understand before the foundation of the world was laid, he wrote a poem, which reveals His workmanship that each of us without exception are. His desire for everyone human being is for them to walk out those plans, desires and purposes He wrote. Every human being on the planet we call earth has a book regardless of what they believe or where they live. He is calling every single person to respond to His love and fulfill their divine purpose.

We have been issued a challenge and that is to become perfect in love! God is love! And we are invited to become like Him as we love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the highest calling and to walk this out we must eject from our souls, unforgiveness, bitterness, malice, selfish ambition, one up men ship, self-centeredness, insubordination, pride and every other thing that is not love.

Bottom line, I am growing in love and accept that I am not perfect.

I love you, because He first loved me!

By the way the Bride He is coming for is flawless, without defect. And if you want to know how to find this Bride, look in the mirror.

Ephesians 5:26-27

 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the Ekklesia in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. (In love – For God is Love)