Matthew 5:48

Mat_5:48

Perfect.

I. What is not to be understood by this requirement, or what Christian perfection is not. Not perfection of knowledge, freedom from temptation, conflict, etc.

II. What is the perfection here required? Perfect obedience to the law of God.

III. That this perfection is a duty. For God requires it.

IV. That it is attainable. It is commanded-God wills it; it is promised; it is the object for which the Holy Spirit is promised and given, etc. Answer objections. (Professor Finney.)

The moral perfections of God

I. God is perfectly wise. Wisdom implies right use of knowledge, and lies in the will as well as in the understanding He acts wisely whose will is directed by right reason. Practical improvement we should make of the wisdom of God.

1. We should be hereby excited to seek wisdom (Pro_4:5; Pro_4:7).

2. We should ask wisdom of God to direct us in our ways.

3. It becomes us to resign to His will and acquiesce in His appointments.

II. God is perfectly good. His other attributes are rendered engaging to us by His goodness. How extensive the Divine goodness (Psa_145:9; Psa_145:16). Is God perfectly good?

1. Then all our powers ought to be awakened to bless His name.

2. Then how hateful should sin be to us.

3. Then we ought to be careful to practise goodness.

III. God is perfectly holy. This denotes the transcendent excellence of His nature, while He is infinitely distinguished from all other beings. Then we should follow after holiness.

IV. God is perfectly just. Justice is commonly distinguished into commutative and distributive, the former in an equal exchange of benefits; this can have no place in our dealings with God. Distributive justice, which ought to be exercised by rulers towards their subjects, consists in the equal distribution of rewards and punishments. God cannot be awed by any power to pervert judgment. The judgments of God cannot be fathomed at present. Is God just?

1. This should awaken in us holy awe.

2. It is of great concern to us guilty creatures to be found in Jesus Christ, having on His righteousness.

V. God is truth.

1. Then we must embrace whatever God has revealed to us.

2. The reasonableness of reliance on Gods promises.

Conclude:-

1. It should yield us satisfaction that such a perfect Being as God is governs the world.

2. We should in our contemplations of Him have a strict regard to the harmony of His attributes.

3. Blessed are they who upon good grounds can call this perfect Being their Father and God. (S. Price.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:48 This verse ties 5:20-48 together as a unit (see study note on 4:23-25). • you are to be perfect: The term rendered “perfect” means maturity and wholeness in response to Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom, and complete consecration to God (19:21; Eph 4:13; Phil 3:15; Col 1:28; 4:12; 1 Jn 4:18). Perfection has love at its core (see Luke 6:36).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 5:48. Ὑμεῖς, you) In honourable contradistinction to them.—τελέιοι, perfect) sc. in love towards all.[239][240]

[239] See Col 3:14.—(I. B.)

[240] Bengel, J. A. (1860). Vol. 1: Gnomon of the New Testament (M. E. Bengel & J. C. F. Steudel, Ed.) (J. Bandinel & A. R. Fausset, Trans.) (138–185). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_5:48. Ἔσεσθε] imperatively.

οὖν) draws a deduction from Mat_5:44-47, where the emphatic ὑμεῖς forms the sublime antithesis to the last-mentioned publicans and heathens. The highest summary of the unending obligation of Christian love.

τέλειοι] ἐν μηδενὶ λειπόμενοι, Jam_1:4. Euth. Zigabenus well remarks: οἱ μὲν ἀγαπῶντες τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας αὐτοὺς ἀτελεῖς εἰσιν εἰς ἀλάπην: οἱ δὲ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς, οὗτοι τέλειοι. Comp. Luther: after the example of the heavenly Father, who does not piece nor divide His love, and already Ignatius, ad Philad., interpol. 3. Thus the closing admonition stands in close relation to what precedes. Others (Beza, Fritzsche, Kuinoel, Ewald, who also regards Mat_7:12 as originally belonging to this passage): integri, sine vitiis in general, without exclusive reference to the commandment of love. They consider the verse as the top-stone of the whole discourse, directed from Mat_5:20 onwards against the Pharisees. But this anti-Pharisaic tendency is still continued also in ch. 6, and the pointing to the example of God would at least not be appropriate to Mat_6:27 ff. and to Mat_6:31 ff.

ὥσπερ] equality of the moral modality, Mat_5:45, by which the relation of the adequate degree is not required, and yet the ideal task, the obligation of which is never exhausted (Rom_13:8 ff.), is for ever made sure. Observe, moreover, how this ὥσπερ corresponds, indeed, to the Platonic conception of virtue (ὁμοιοῦσθαι τῷ θεῷ); the latter, however, is surpassed, on the one side, by the specific requirement of love as similarity to God; and, on the other, by the idea of God as the heavenly Father.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 5:48 . Concluding exhortation . οὖν , from an ancient form of the participle of the verb εἶναι (Klotz, Devar. ) = “things being so;” either a collective inference from all that goes before (Mat 5:21-47 ) or as a reflection on the immediately preceding argument. Both come to the same thing. Godlike love is commended in Mat 5:44-47 , but the gist of all the six illustrations of Christ’s way of thinking is: Love the fulfilling of the law; obviously, except in the case of oaths, where it is truth that is enjoined. But truth has its source in love; Eph 4:15 : ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ , “truthing it in love”. ἔσεσθε , future, “ye shall be” = BE. ὑμεῖς , ye , emphatic, in contrast with τελ . and ἐθν ., who are content with moral commonplace and conventional standards. Τέλειοι : in general, men who have reached the end, touched the ideal, that at least their purpose, not satisfied with anything short of it. The τέλειοι are not men with a conceit of perfection, but aspirants men who seek to attain, like Paul: διώκω εἰ καὶ καταλάβω , Phi 3:12 , and like him, single-minded , their motto: ἓν δέ . Single-mindedness is a marked characteristic of all genuine citizens of the kingdom (Mat 6:33 ), and what the Bible means by perfection. All men who attain have one great ruling aim. That aim for the disciple, as here set forth, is Godlikeness ὡς ὁ πατὴρ … τέλειός ἐστιν . God is what His sons aspire to be; He never sinks below the ideal: impartial, benignant, gracious love, even to the unworthy; for that, not all conceivable attributes, is what is in view. ὡς , not in degree, that were a discouraging demand, but in kind. The kind very necessary to be emphasised in view of current ideas and practice, in which holiness was dissociated from love. The law “Be holy for I am holy” (Lev 11:44 ) was taken negatively and worked out in separation from the reputedly sinful. Jesus gave it positive contents, and worked it out in gracious love.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye therefore--rather, "Ye shall therefore be," or "Ye are therefore to be," as My disciples and in My kingdom.

perfect--or complete. Manifestly, our Lord here speaks, not of degrees of excellence, but of the kind of excellence which was to distinguish His disciples and characterize His kingdom. When therefore He adds,

even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect--He refers to that fullorbed glorious completeness which is in the great Divine Model, "their Father which is in heaven."

SERMON ON THE MOUNT--continued.

Next: Matthew Chapter 6

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 48. Be ye therefore perfect - as your Father] God himself is the grand law, sole giver, and only pattern of the perfection which he recommends to his children. The words are very emphatic, εσεσθε ουν υμεις τελειοι, Ye shall be therefore perfect - ye shall be filled with the spirit of that God whose name is Mercy, and whose nature is love. God has many imitators of his power, independence, justice, c., but few of his love, condescension, and kindness. He calls himself LOVE, to teach us that in this consists that perfection, the attainment of which he has made both our duty and privilege: for these words of our Lord include both a command and a promise.

"Can we be fully saved from sin in this world?" is an important question, to which this text gives a satisfactory answer: "Ye shall be perfect, as your Father, who is in heaven, is perfect." - As in his infinite nature there is no sin, nothing but goodness and love, so in your finite nature there shall dwell no sin, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus shall make you free from the law of sin and death, Ro 8:2. God shall live in, fill, and rule your hearts and, in what He fills and influences, neither Satan nor sin can have any part. If men, slighting their own mercies, cry out, This is impossible!-whom does this arguing reprove - God, who, on this ground, has given a command, the fulfilment of which is impossible. "But who can bring a clean out of an unclean thing?" God Almighty - and, however inveterate the disease of sin may be, the grace of the Lord Jesus can fully cure it; and who will say, that he who laid down his life for our souls will not use his power completely to effect that salvation which he has died to procure. "But where is the person thus saved?" Wherever he is found who loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbour as himself; and, for the honour of Christianity and its AUTHOR, may we not hope there are many such in the Church of God, not known indeed by any profession of this kind which they make, but by a surer testimony, that of uniformly holy tempers, piety to God, and beneficence to man?

Dr. Lightfoot is not perfectly satisfied with the usual mode of interpreting the 22nd verse of this chapter. I subjoin the substance of what he says. Having given a general exposition of the word brother, which the Jews understood as signifying none but an Israelite - ενοχος, which we translate is in danger of, and which he shows the Jews used to signify, is exposed to, merits, or is guilty of-and the word gehenna, hell-fire, which he explains as I have done above, he comes to the three offences, and their sentences.

The FIRST is causeless anger, which he thinks too plain to require explanation; but into the two following he enters in considerable detail: -

"The SECOND. Whosoever shall say to his brother, 'Racha,' a nickname, or scornful title usual, which they disdainfully put one upon another, and very commonly; and therefore our Saviour has mentioned this word, the rather because it was of so common use among them. Take these few examples: -

"A certain man sought to betake himself to repentance (and restitution.) His wife said to him, 'Rekah, if thou make restitution, even thy girdle about thee is not thine own, c.' Tanchum, fol. 5.

"Rabbi Jochanan was teaching concerning the building of Jerusalem with sapphires and diamonds, c. One of his scholars laughed him to scorn. But afterwards, being convinced of the truth of the thing, he saith to him, 'Rabbi, do thou expound, for it is fit for thee to expound: as thou saidst, so have I seen it.' he saith to him, 'Rekah, hadst thou not seen, thou wouldst not have believed, &c.' Midras Tillin, fol. 38, col. 4.

"To what is the thing like? To a king of flesh and blood, who took to wife a king's daughter: he saith to her, 'Wait and fill me a cup' but she would not: whereupon he was angry, and put her away she went, and was married to a sordid fellow; and he saith to her, 'Wait, and fill me a cup;' she said unto him, 'Rekah, I am a king's daughter, c.' Idem in Psalm 137.

"A Gentile saith to an Israelite, 'I have a choice dish for thee to eat of.' He saith, 'What is it ?' He answers, 'Swine's flesh.' he saith to him, 'Rekah, even what you kill of clean beasts is forbidden us, much more this.' Tanchum, fol. 18, col. 4.

"The THIRD offence is to say to a brother, 'Thou fool,' which, how to distinguish from racha, which signifies an empty fellow, were some difficulty, but that Solomon is a good dictionary here for us, who takes the term continually here for a wicked wretch and reprobate, and in opposition to spiritual wisdom: so that in the first clause is condemned causeless anger in the second, scornful taunting and reproaching of a brother; and, in the last, calling him a reprobate and wicked, or uncharitably censuring his spiritual and eternal estate. And this last does more especially hit the scribes and Pharisees, who arrogated to themselves only to be called חכמים chocamim, wise men, but of all others they had this scornful and uncharitable opinion, 'This people, that knoweth not the law, is cursed,' Joh 7:49.

"And now for the penalties denounced upon these offences, let us look upon them, taking notice of these two traditions of the Jews, which our Saviour seems to face, and to contradict.

"1st. That they accounted the command, Thou shalt not kill, to aim only at actual murder. So that in their collecting the six hundred and thirteen precepts out of the law, they understand that command to mean but this: 'That one should not kill an Israelite,' and accordingly they allotted this only violation of it to judgments; against this wild gloss and practice, he speaks in the first clause: Ye have heard it said, Thou shalt not kill, and he that killeth, or committeth actual murder, is liable to judgment, and ye extend the violation of that command no farther; but I say to you, that causeless anger against thy brother is a violation of that command, and even that maketh a man liable to judgment.

2nd. They allotted that murder only to be judged by the council, or Sanhedrin, that was committed by a man in propria persona: let them speak their own sense, c. Talm. in Sanhedrin, per. 9.

"'Any one that kills his neighbour with his hand, as if he strike him with a sword, or with a stone that kills him, or strangle him till he die, or burn him in the fire, seeing that he kills him any how in his own person, lo! such a one must be put to death by the Sanhedrin but he that hires another to kill his neighbour, or that sends his servants, and they kill him, or that violently thrusts him before a lion, or the like, and the beast kills him-any one of these is a shedder of blood, and the guilt of shedding of blood is upon him, and he is liable to death by the hand of Heaven, but he is not to be put to death by the Sanhedrin. And whence is the proof that it must be thus! Because it is said, He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. This is he that slays a man himself, and not by the hand of another. Your blood of your lives will I require. This is he that slays himself. At the hand of every beast will I require it. This is he that delivers up his neighbour before a beast to be rent in pieces. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. This is he that hires others to kill his neighbour: In this interpretation, requiring is spoken of all the three; behold, their judgment is delivered over to Heaven (or God.) And all these man-slayers and the like, who are not liable to death by the Sanhedrin, if the king of Israel will slay them by the judgment of the kingdom, and the law of nations, he may, c.' Maym. ubi supr. per. 2.

"You may observe in these wretched traditions a twofold killing, and a twofold judgment: a man's killing another in his own person, and with his own hand, and such a one liable to the judgment of the Sanhedrin, to be put to death by them, as a murderer and a man that killed another by proxy, not with his own hand, not hiring another to kill him, or turning a beast or serpent upon him to kill him. This man is not to be judged and executed by the Sanhedrin, but, referred and reserved only to the judgment of God. So that we see plainly, from hence, in what sense the word judgment is used in the latter end of the preceding verse, and the first clause of this, namely, not for the judgment of any one of the Sanhedrins, as it is commonly understood, but for the judgment of God. In the former verse, Christ speaks their sense, and in the first clause of this, his own, in application to it. Ye have heard it said, that any man that kills is liable to the judgment of God; but I say unto you, that he that is but angry with his brother without a cause is liable to the judgment of God. You have heard it said, that he only that commits murder with his own hand is liable to the council, or Sanhedrin, as a murderer; but I say unto you, that he that but calls his brother racha, as common a word as ye make it, and a thing of nothing, he is liable to be judged by the Sanhedrin.

"Lastly, he that saith to his brother, Thou fool, wicked one, or cast-away, shall be in danger of hell-fire, ενοχος εις γεενναν πυρος. There are two observable things in the words. The first is the change of case from what was before; there it was said τη κρισει τω συνεδριω, but here, εις γεενναν. It is but an emphatical raising of the sense, to make it the more feeling and to speak home. He that saith to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council; but he that says, Thou fool, shall be in danger of a penalty even to hell-fire. And thus our Saviour equals the sin and penalty in a very just parable. In just anger, with God's just anger and judgment; public reproach, with public correction by the council; and censuring for a child of hell, to the fire of hell.

"2nd. It is not said εις πυρ γεεννης, To the fire of hell, but εις γεεννας πυρος, To a hell of fire; in which expression he sets the emphasis still higher. And, besides the reference to the valley of Hinnom, he seems to refer to that penalty used by the Sanhedrin of burning - the most bitter death that they used to put men to; the manner of which was thus: They set the malefactor in a dunghill up to the knees; and they put a towel about his neck, and one pulled one way, and another the opposite, till, by thus strangling him, they forced him to open his mouth. Then they poured boiling lead into his mouth, which went down into his belly, and so burnt his bowels. Talm. in Sanhedrin. per. 7.

"Now, having spoken in the clause before, of being judged by the Sanhedrin, whose most terrible penalty was this burning, he doth in this clause raise the penalty higher; namely, of burning in hell; not with a little scalding lead, but even with a hell of fire." It is possible that our Lord might have reference to such customs as these.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(48) Be ye therefore perfect.—Literally, Ye therefore shall be perfect—the ideal future that implies an imperative.

Your Father which is in heaven.—The better reading gives, your heavenly Father. The idea of perfection implied in the word here is that of the attainment of the end or ideal completeness of our being. In us that attainment implies growth, and the word is used (e.g., in 1Co_2:6; Heb_5:14) of men of full age as contrasted with infants. In God the perfection is not something attained, but exists eternally, but we draw near to it and become partakers of the divine nature when we love as He loves:

———“Earthly power doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

48. Be ye] Lit. Ye shall be perfect. Either (1) in reference to a future state, “if ye have this true love or charity ye shall be perfect hereafter;” or (2) the future has an imperative force, and perfect is limited by the preceding words = perfect in respect of love, i. e. “love your enemies as well as your neighbours,” because your Father being perfect in respect of love does this.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father,.... This perfection is to be restrained to the subject Christ is upon, love to men, and not to be referred to any, or every other thing; wherefore, in Luk 6:36 it is, "be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful"; and regards not a perfection of degree in that, but objects and quality: that is to say, not that men may, or can, or ought to be as perfect in love, as to the degree of it, as God is; that is impossible: the "as" here, is not a note of equality, but of likeness: such, who profess God to be their Father, ought to imitate him, particularly in their love to men, which ought to be extended to the same objects, as the divine goodness is; that, as he shows regard in a providential way to all men, good and bad, just and unjust, and his tender mercies are over all his works; so ought they to love all men with a natural affection, and hate no man, no, not their enemies: for he that loves only his friends, and not his enemies, loves imperfectly; he does not take in the whole compass of objects his love is to extend unto; and as God loves sincerely, and without dissimulation, so should they. To be "perfect", is to be sincere and upright: in this sense is the word often used, and answers to the Hebrew word which signifies the same: see Deu 18:13 which is the passage Christ seems to refer to here; and the sense is, be ye sincere and upright in your love to all men, as your heavenly Father is hearty and sincere in his affections to them.

Next: Matthew Chapter 6

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Ver. 48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, &c.] The child (saith one) is the father multiplied, the father of a second edition. Of Constantine’s sons Eusebius reporteth, that they "put on their father’s fashions, and did exactly resemble him." {a} And of Irenaeus, the same author telleth us that he expressed to the life the learning and virtues of his master Polycarp. It were happy for us (and we must labour it) if we could pass into the likeness of the heavenly pattern. Our summum bonum consists in communion with God and conformity to him; in keeping inward peace with God, that he "abhor us not because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters," Deu 32:19; and in seeking and keeping (as much as may be) peace with all men and holiness; purifying ourselves as he is pure, 1Jn 3:3; (in quality, though we cannot in an equality), from the love of every lust (the ground of all our wranglings, Jas 4:1), but especially from the passions and perturbations of the heart, possessing ourselves in patience. For if patience have her perfect work we shall be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, Jas 1:4. For "perfect" St Luke hath it, "Be merciful," &c., Luk 6:36.

{a} ολον ενεδυσαντο τον κονσταντινον εμπρεποντες τπος του πατρος καλλωπισμασιν. Eusebius.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye therefore perfect ... - The Saviour concludes this part of the discourse by commanding his disciples to be “perfect.” This word commonly means “finished, complete, pure, holy.” Originally, it is applied to a piece of mechanism, as a machine that is complete in its parts. Applied to people, it refers to completeness of parts, or perfection, where no part is defective or wanting. Thus, Job Job 1:1 is said to be “perfect;” that is, not holy as God, or “sinless” - for fault is afterward found with him Job 9:20; Job 42:6; but his piety was “proportionate” - had a completeness of parts was consistent and regular. He exhibited his religion as a prince, a father, an individual, a benefactor of the poor. He was not merely a pious man in one place, but uniformly. He was consistent everywhere. See the notes at that passage. This is the meaning in Matthew. Be not religious merely in loving your friends and neighbors, but let your piety be shown in loving your enemies; imitate God; let your piety be “complete, proportionate, regular.” This every Christian may be; this every Christian must be.

Remarks On Matthew 5

1. The gospel pronounces blessings on things far different from what the world has thought to be a source of happiness. People suppose that happiness is to be found in mirth, in wealth, in honor, in esteem, in freedom from persecution. Christ says that it is to be sought in the reverse. Often people are most happy in poverty, in sickness, in persecution, when supported by the presence and promises of a merciful God. And if God appoints our station there, we should submit to it, and learn therewith to be content.

2. We may see the evil of anger. It is a species of murder. If secretly cherished, or exhibited by contempt and injury, it must bring down the displeasure of God. It is a source of misery. True enjoyment is found in meekness, peace, calmness, and benevolence. In such a firmness, and steadiness, and dependence on God as to keep the soul unruffled in the midst of provocation, is happiness. Such was Christ.

3. We see the evil of indelicacy of feeling and sentiment, and the strictness and severity of the law respecting the contact of the sexes Mat 5:28. And yet what law is more frequently violated? By obscene anecdotes and tales; by songs and gibes; by double meanings and innuendoes; by looks and gestures; by conversation, and obscene books and pictures, this law of our Saviour is perpetually violated. If there is any one sentiment of most value for the comfort, the character, the virtuous sociability of the young - one that will shed the greatest charm over society, and make it the most pure, it is that which inculcates “perfect delicacy” and “purity” in the contact of the sexes. Virtue of any kind never blooms where this is not cherished. Modesty and purity once gone, every flower that would diffuse its fragrance over life withers and dies with it. There is no one sin that so withers and blights every virtue, none that so enfeebles and prostrates every ennobling feeling of the soul, as the violation of the seventh commandment in spirit or in form, in thought or in act. How should purity dwell in the heart, breathe from the lips, kindle in the eye, live in the imagination, and dwell in the conversation of all the young! An eternal, avenging God is near to every wanton thought, marks every eye that kindles with impure desire, rolls the thunder of justice over every polluted soul, and is preparing woe for every violator of the laws of purity and chastity, Pro 7:22-23; Pro 5:5; Pro 2:18.

4. Revenge is equally forbidden. Persecution, slander, a spirit of litigation, anger, personal abuse, dueling, suicide, murder, are all violations of the law of God, and all must call down His vengeance.

5. We are bound to love our enemies. This is a law of Christianity, original and unique. No system of religion but Christianity has required it, and no act of Christian piety is more difficult. None shows more the power of the grace of God; none is more ornamental to the character; none more like God; and none furnishes better evidence of piety. He that can meet a man kindly who is seeking his hurt; who can speak well of one that is perpetually slandering and cursing him; that can pray for a man that abuses, injures, and wounds him: and that can seek heaven for him that wishes his damnation, is in the way to life. This is religion, beautiful as its native skies; pure like its Source; kind like its Author; fresh like the dews of the morning; clear and diffusive like the beams of the rising sun; and holy like the feelings and words that come from the bosom of the Son of God. He that can do this need not doubt that he is a Christian. He has caught the very spirit of the Saviour, and he must inherit eternal life.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jesus Christ here sums up his instructions by ordering us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect; i.e. to imitate, as far as our exertions, assisted by divine grace, can reach, the divine perfection. (Witham) --- See here the great superiority of the new over the old law. But let no one hence take occasion to despise the old. Let him examine attentively, says St. John Chrysostom, the different periods of time, and the persons to whom it was given; and he will admire the wisdom of the divine Legislator, and clearly perceive that it is one and the same Lord, and that each law was to the great advantage of mankind, and wisely adapted to the times of their promulgation. For, if among the first principles of rectitude, these sublime and eminent truths had been found, perhaps neither these, nor the less perfect rules of mortality would have been observed; whereas, by disposing of both in their proper time, the divine wisdom has employed both for the correction of the world. Hom xviii. Seeing then that we are thus blessed as to be called, and to be the children of so excellent a Father, we should endeavour, like Him, to excel in goodness, meekness, and charity; but above all in humility, which will secure to us the merit of good works, through the infinite merits of our divine Redeemer, Master, and model, Christ Jesus the Lord. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Perfect here is not taken in that sense as it is taken in other texts of Scripture, where it signifieth sincerity and uprightness, as Job 2:3, or where it signifieth a comparative perfection, as Paul saith he spake to those that were perfect; but for an absolute perfection, such as is in our

Father which is in heaven, and so much is signified by the proposing of our heavenly Father as our example. Nor will it therefore follow, either that this is a mere counsel, not a precept, or that an absolute perfection in holiness is a thing in this life attainable. But that it is our duty to labour for it, forgetting what is behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, as the apostle speaks, Phi 3:13,14. Pro perfecto est qui perfecto proximus. God accounts him perfect who is nearest to perfection.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

48. Perfect… as your Father — Be not at the low standard of publicans and other ordinary men; but make God your model; as was commanded in Mat_5:45. Be not low and imperfect, like unregenerate man, but rise to an imitation of our Father. Be perfect, by having a heart purified from all hate, and filled with all love. If thy vessel be filled with love, God can be no more than full. He is the perfect infinite, thou art the perfect finite. The shrine of a temple was the perfect image of the temple. The temple was a perfect temple, the shrine was a perfect shrine. They were different in magnitude, but they were alike perfect.

It is to be remarked that the Greek verb here rendered be ye, is truly to be rendered ye shall be. It is therefore a promise that if we disregard the low average of customary morality around us, and fully obey the law and enjoy the power of love in our hearts, we shall be perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect. Alford here remarks: “No countenance is given by this verse to… perfectibility in this life.” Taking the word perfectibility in its evangelical sense, we should like to know why? Our Saviour here distinctly affirms that it depends upon, or rather consists in the indwelling reign of love in our hearts. Nor must any man lower down to his own moral level the high promises of God’s word in this behalf. It is a practical promise, which is implied in the prayer of the apostle, and is expressly limited to this life, when he prays: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1Th_5:23. And it is a practical precept which St. James gives: “That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Jas_1:4. Against these promises of the complete reign of love in the heart, completing our Christian life, it is useless to quote those imperfections and failings which belong to men as men, arising from the limitations of the human mind. Neither St. Paul nor St. James expected that the Christians they addressed would be perfect like angels, or even ideally perfect men, nor perfect performers of God’s absolute law. But they did expect that the law of love might possess a perfect power in their hearts, and in that would consist the perfected character of their piety.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In Luk_6:36, "Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful," we have certainly a reminiscence of the same saying, and, almost as certainly, from the smoothing away of difficulties, a less original form of it. Be ye therefore perfect; Revised Version, ye therefore shall be perfect (esesye oun umeiv teleioi). The form is based on Deu_18:13, teleiov esh . While the introduction of umeiv emphasizes the contrast between Christ"s disciples and those who followed the usual deduction from the Law, the position of esesye (reversing that of Deuteronomy) shows that still greater emphasis is placed on their "perfection" as something to be attained. Also, while in the parallel passage of Luke the stress is upon the change that must take place (ginesye) unless, as is possible, it has the simple meaning "show yourselves" (cf. ver. 45, note) in Matthew the possibility or even the certainty of attaining it is definitely stated. You shall make this your aim, and shall attain to it. Therefore. A deduction from the principle laid down in vers. 44-47. From the consideration of the example of your Father, and of the insufficiency of being like publicans and heathen. Perfect (teleioi). In the Gospels here Mat_19:21 only. The word denotes those who have attained the full development of innate powers, in contrast to those who are still in the undeveloped state adults in contrast to children. Thus the thought here is Ye shall be satisfied with, and shall attain to, no lower state than that of maturity. But what is it as to which they shall be mature? Surely not the whole Law as illustrated by all the examples since ver. 21; for vers. 31, and 32 are excluded by the comparison with God immediately following. It must be the subject with which the sentence is closely connected, vers. 44-47 (cf. Meyer); love to others even though they have done you wrong. In this respect, viz. love to others, you shall admit, says our Lord, no lower ideal than that of" maturity, even such maturity as is found in him who sends sun and rain on all alike. Some (Augustine, Trench) have seen in this a merely relative maturity, itself capable of further development; but the subject rather demands absolute and final maturity. This does not imply that man will ever have such fulness of love as the Father has, but that he will fully and completely attain to that measure of love to which he as a created being was intended to attain. It may, however, be in accordance with true exegesis to see, with Weiss, for such apparently is his meaning, also an indication of further teaching the nature of the revelation made known by Christ. For whereas "the fundamental commandment" of the Old Testament, "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy", (Lev_11:44, Lev_11:45) was the more negative thought of God"s exaltation above the impurity of created beings, our Lord now puts forth "the positive conception of the Divine perfection, whose nature is all-embracing, self-sacrificing love. And in place of the God, for ever separated from his polluted people by his holiness, to whom they can only render themselves worthy of approach through the most anxious abstinence from all impurity, and by means of the statutes for purification contained in the Law, there is on the ground of this new revelation the Father in heaven, who stoops to his children in love, and so operates that they must and can be like him" (Weiss, "Life," 2:156). The simple and straightforward meaning of the verse, however, is this You shall take no lower standard in love to enemies than God shows to those who ill treat him, and you shall, in fact, attain to this standard. Upon this (for the limitation of the meaning to one point makes no real difference) there arises the question which has been of so much importance in all ages of the Church What is the measure of attainment that is really possible for Christ"s disciples upon earth? ought they not to expect to live perfect lives? But the text gives no warrant for such an assertion. No doubt it says that attainment to maturity to perfection according to creaturely limits is eventually possible. That is implied in esesye (vide supra). But when this attainment can be made is not stated. Many will, indeed, affirm that, as our Lord is giving directions to his disciples concerning things in this life, the attainment also is affirmed to be possible in this life. But this by no means follows. Christ gives the command, and by the form of it implies that it shall be carried out to the full. But this is quite consistent with the conception of a gradually increasing development of love which, in fact will attain maturity, a state in which God"s love has ever been; but not immediately and not before the final completion of all Christ"s work in us. The words form, indeed, a promise as well as a command, but the absence of a statement of time forbids us to claim the verse as a warrant for asserting that the teleiothv referred to can be attained in this life. Trench ("Syr.," explains the passage by saying that the adjective is used the first time in a relative, and the second time in an absolute, sense. But this does not seem as probable as the interpretation given above, according to which the adjective is in both cases used absolutely. His following words, however, deserve careful attention. "The Christian shall be " perfect," yet not in the sense in which some of the sects preach the doctrine of perfection, who, so soon as their words are looked into, are found either to mean nothing which they could not have expressed by a word less liable to misunderstanding; or to mean something which no man in this life shall attain, and which he who affirms he has attained is deceiving himself, or others, or both." Even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect; Revised Version, as your heavenly Father is perfect; so the manuscripts. The epithet, o ouraniov , is wanting in Luke, but Matthew wishes to lay stress on their Father"s character and methods being different from those of an earthly father. Observe again not "the Father" but your Father; nerving them to fulfil the summons to likeness to him (cf. ver. 16).

Our standard of perfection.

"Even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Though fittingly employed at the close of this chapter, the word "perfect" is more immediately connected with the last few verses. Dealing with that strange inference of the Pharisees, that because we are commanded to love our neighbours, we are therefore required to hate our enemies, Christ presents the true idea of love, the perfect conception of love. He demands such a love as can make what is opposite to it, as well as what is akin to it, its object. The apostles teach that perfection is the idea, the aim, to be kept in the soul of the Christian, there to work as a perpetual inspiration to the seeking of perfection in the life and conduct. St. Paul presents the distinction between full-grown men and little children. The full-grown men are the perfect; they have reached the fulness, the standard, of Christian manhood. A man "perfect" is one who has attained his moral end, the standard according to which he was made; one in whom every Christian grace has reached its ripeness and maturity.

I CHRISTIANITY PRESENTS A PERFECT STANDARD OF HUMANITY. Christ is the realized thought of God, when he designed the being man. The Christ is to be so set before men, that they may get from his story the idea of a perfect human being. We may be able to form an idea of perfect virtue, perfect duty, perfect purity. What we wholly fail to conceive is a perfect man. That must be shown us, revealed to us. And when we see him, behold he is "God manifest in the flesh." For, after all, God himself is the standard perfection; and it is only because we see him in Christ that we are satisfied with Christ.

II THE CHRISTIAN STANDARD OF THE PERFECT IS THE NOBLEST INSPIRATION TO MAN. To be like God is the sublimest human possibility. We know what being like God means when we look on Christ. He has at once revealed our distance from the "perfect;" for we are not like him. He inspires us to seek after the perfect; for we may be "made like unto him in all things. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore ye shall be perfect; as your Father who is in heaven is perfect - So the original runs, referring to all that holiness which is described in the foregoing verses, which our Lord in the beginning of the chapter recommends as happiness, and in the close of it as perfection. And how wise and gracious is this, to sum up, and, as it were, seal all his commandments with a promise! Even the proper promise of the Gospel! That he will put those laws in our minds, and write them in our hearts! He well knew how ready our unbelief would be to cry out, this is impossible! And therefore stakes upon it all the power, truth, and faithfulness of him to whom all things are possible.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

perfect

The word implies full development, growth into maturity of godliness, not sinless perfection. Eph 4:12; Eph 4:13. In this passage the Father’s kindness, not His sinlessness, is the point in question. Luk 6:35; Luk 6:36

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A summary of this section:

v. 48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Since all these arguments must be accepted, and since love is the fulfillment of the Law, the Lord draws His conclusion. Ye who wish to be counted as My disciples shall stand out in contrast with those whose idea of altruism is modeled after conventional standards. Nothing short of the great ideal shall satisfy you. With a single-mindedness of purpose that forgets all else they shall strive after perfection in accordance with their great model, their Father in heaven. God is perfect, the fullness, the consummation, of all good. And the perfection of the Christians consists in striving after those ideals which God has set before them in His holy will. Thus they are daily and continually renewed in knowledge, and in holiness and righteousness, after the image of Him that made and redeemed them, until the day of their final perfection will dawn in heaven.

Summary.Christ opens the Sermon on the Mount with the beatitudes, gives a short outline of the call of the disciples in the world, shows the spiritual understanding of the Law by a number of examples, and teaches love toward one’s enemy and true altruism.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, aim at perfection in all Christian virtues and divine graces, but particularly in this of love, in imitation of your heavenly Father, who is the perfect pattern of all desirable goodness and adorable perfections. To be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect, is indeed impossible, as to equality, but not as to imitation.

The word rendered here perfect by St. Matthew, is elsewere by St. Luke rendered merciful, Luk 6:36, implying, that charity is the perfection of a Christian’s graces: he that is made perfect in love, is perfect in all divine graces, in the account of God.

Learn, 1. That there is no standing still in religion; he that will be saved must press on towards perfection.

Learn, 2. That no less than perfect and complete perfection in grace, and particularly in the grace of love and charity, is and ought to be the aim of every Christian in this life, and shall be his attainment in the next.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

48. Be ye therefore perfect. To carry out fully this great law of love would lift man to the Divine standard of perfection. This must be the aim of life. We have before us as a pattern for the perfect God; we have the Divine perfection embodied in Christ. It will require a constant struggle while in the flesh to come near so high an ideal, but it must be our continual aim. This does not teach such sanctification that we cannot sin, nor that we, here on earth, attain absolute perfection, but we have placed before us, as a model, the perfect ideal, and we will constantly ascend higher by striving to attain it.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

48. ἔσεσθε τέλειοι. Lit. ‘ye shall be perfect.’ Either (1) in reference to a future state, ‘if ye have this true love or charity ye shall be perfect hereafter’; or (2) the future has an imperative force, and τέλειοι is limited by the preceding words = perfect in respect of love, i.e. ‘love your enemies as well as your neighbours,’ because your Father being perfect in respect of love does this. This use of the future is in accordance with the Hebrew idiom.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

48. ἔσεσθε] Not altogether imperative in meaning, but including the imperative sense: such shall be the state, the aim of Christians.

τέλειοι] complete, in your love of others; not one-sided, or exclusive, as these just mentioned, but all-embracing, and God-like ═ οἰκτίρμονες, Luk 6:36. ὑμεῖς is emphatic. No countenance is given by this verse to the ancient Pelagian or the modern heresy of perfectibility in this life. Such a sense of the words would be utterly at variance with the whole of the discourse. See especially vv. 22, 29, 32, in which the imperfections and conflicts of the Christian are fully recognized. Nor, if we consider this verse as a solemn conclusion of the second part of the Sermon, does it any the more admit of this view, asserting as it does that likeness to God in inward purity, love, and holiness, must be the continual aim and end of the Christian in all the departments of his moral life. But how far from having attained this likeness we are, St. Paul shews us (Php 3:12); and every Christian feels, just in the proportion in which he has striven after it. Augustine argues for the true sense of this and similar passages of Scripture against the Pelagians at length, De peccatorum meritis et remissione, lib. 2Ch_12 (17-20), and De perfectione justitiæ hominis, ch. 8, 9, vol. x. οἱ μὲν ἀγαπῶντες τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας αὐτοὺς ἀτελεῖς εἰσιν εἰς ἀγάπην, οἱ δὲ τοὺς ἐχθρούς, τέλειοι. Euthym. On the sense see 1Pe 1:15.

Thol. quotes from Plato, Theæt. p. 176, διὸ καὶ πειρᾶσθαι χρὴ ἐνθένδε ἐκεῖσε φεύγειν ὅτι τάχιστα· φυγὴ δὲ ὁμοίωσις θεῷ κατὰ τὸ δυνατόν· ὁμοίωσις δὲ δίκαιον καὶ ὅσιον μετὰ φρονήσεως γενέσθαι.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

48. τέλειος] Lk. has οἰκτίρμων, but it is probable that he substitutes this word to emphasise the particular aspect of “perfection.” which the whole context in his Sermon makes prominent. “Perfection” in the Old Testament means “without moral blemish,” and can be used of upright men such as Noah (Gen 6:9), Job (1:1). It is enjoined in Deu 18:13 τέλειος ἒσῃ ἐναντίον κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου. Here the context defines it as perfection in love, which seeks the good of all men. God is perfect, because He bestows His favour on all alike. The whole section is aimed at definitions of the word “neighbour,” which would limit its application to a particular class who must be treated in accordance with the command “to love,” whilst others not included in it might be treated in a different way. “Perfection” contemplates all men alike from the standpoint of love, and this is in accord with God’s dealings with men. Compassion or mercy is a rather one-sided application of this idea.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.