Be Perfect

Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. - Jesus, in Matthew 5:48

Many of us have heard these words preached to us - and it haunted us. Plenty of us memorized this bible verse as children - and it haunted us. Almost all of us wonder if God is out there looking down, ready to judge us for our imperfections. And then, not unlike the child of an alcoholic who is predisposed to become an alcoholic themselves, in answer to feeling judged by God we turn and judge others and ourselves.

What a ruinous cycle!

But perhaps there’s another way to read this verse that might leave us with more hope, instead of the impossible-to-reach scrupulous standards of moral purity.

The Greek word for ‘perfect’ in this verse and many others in the New Testament - TELOS - often is more helpfully translated as ‘completion’ or ‘maturity’ or ‘fullness.’ It’s used of a flower in full bloom, for example, or fruit that is ripe. It’s not like there’s an instant when the flower or the fruit obtain moral correctness - it’s talking about a sense of goodness and organic fullness.

Often in the New Testament TELOS is translated for people as ‘maturity’ - which, again, is more organic than technical. When does an adolescent mature, after all? There’s not specific right or wrong line that they have to cross to be an adult.

Detriech Bonhoeffer, the German martyr, wrote about ‘the pathological overburdening of life by the ethical’ - this sense in which we try so hard to be morally pure that all our white-knuckling gives us an ulcer… and is anything but ‘mature.’ No! As Paul wrote, “It is for freedom that we have been set free - do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Take a moment to respond to this good news.