Matthew 5:48
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This is the end of the first part of the Beatitudes, one of Jesus first sermons that is recorded. I have been looking through Matthew 5 – 7 quite a bit over the past few weeks. I believe God has me lingering here to grasp something that is still a bit beyond my reach. But I have gotten a few things already.
This verse at the end of chapter 5 is a hard one. I remember being asked by some teenagers early on in my ministry what this verse meant and I struggled a bit to help them understand it. I think I get it a bit more now. You see, Jesus came and was a rebel. He did not want to be counted among the religious elite, but a man, a savior for the common folks. His point throughout this sermon seems to be that we need to dig deeper, go further than just what the law requires. God is perfect, and out relationship of tremendous gratitude to him should inspire us to want to dig deeper, go further because of what He has done for us.
We are not just following some dead set of rules so we can get closer to God, we are responding to our Fathers great love for us. . .by faith, and obedience to Him. We should want desperately to be perfect for him. If we are following Him, getting closer to Him and bathing in his Word we should be changing and loving and growing and we should look more and more like this picture Jesus really paints of himself in this sermon on the mount.
Father God, draw me closer to your side today. Root me deep in your love and feed me your word that I might grow closer to you and closer to the image of Christ that is portrayed here. I want to love you, serve you, follow you in everything that I do. I am desperate for you God.
