TODAY’S BIBLE READING OF MATTHEW 5:
Matthew 5:48 is the focus verse I’ve chosen.
Matthew 5:48 / Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
CONTEXT OF MATTHEW 5:48:
Matthew 5:43-48 / GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you this: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. 45 In this way you show that you are children of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on people whether they are good or evil. He lets rain fall on them whether they are just or unjust. 46 If you love those who love you, do you deserve a reward? Even the tax collectors do that! 47 Are you doing anything remarkable if you welcome only your friends? Everyone does that! 48 That is why you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.
What the context teaches me, verses 46-47 in particular, is that I am not supposed to live like the world. Never should I do something “because everybody else is doing it.” Rather, I’m supposed to go against the grain, and not conform to this world and go against it, and do what God requires of me.
What does God require of me? To live by the Word and believe in Him and in Jesus Christ. It’s really that simple.
But, how can I live by the Word, and know Him, and draw nearer to Him, if I am not in the Word all day? The answer is simple. I cannot.
OTHER VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE AND MATTHEW 5:48:
Matthew 5:48 / Expanded Bible (EXB)
48 ·So [Therefore] you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 / New Living Translation (NLT)
48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 / The Message (MSG)
48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.
Matthew 5:48 / New American Standard Bible (NASB)
48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
WHAT NEW INSIGHT HAVE I GAINED FROM THESE OTHER TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE?
Honestly, not much from HCSB to now.
So, what does perfect mean in the original Greek?
LEXICON OF ‘PERFECT’:
Both words of perfect, for us being perfect and God being perfect are the same word. That’s good to know. So, it’s the same kind of perfection I am to try to attain or keep.
Perfect means, according to this source: http://biblehub.com/greek/5046.htm: Mature, complete, full-grown, brought to the finish, etc.
CROSS-REFERENCES OF MATTHEW 5:48:
Ephesians 5:1-2 / New American Standard Bible (NASB)
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
How am I to be perfect like God? I am to imitate Him and love God, myself, and others.
Philippians 3:8-14 / New Century Version (NCV)
8 Not only those things, but I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him, I have lost all those things, and now I know they are worthless trash. This allows me to have Christ 9 and to belong to him. Now I am right with God, not because I followed the law, but because I believed in Christ. God uses my faith to make me right with him. 10 I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death. 11 Then I have hope that I myself will be raised from the dead.
12 I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his. 13 Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.
Key verses of striving to perfection and maturation are verses 12-14.
I want to look at another version of the Bible and those verses:
Philippians 3:12-14 / Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
Does anything else need to be said? I will meditate, think, and ponder on Matthew 5:48 and Philippians 3:12-14 today. I am to live for heaven today. Period. End of discussion.
I am to constantly strive to grow in Christ Jesus and live for heaven/eternity today. This is the goal.
MORE JOURNALING ABOUT MATTHEW 5:48:
Matthew 5:48 / Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
“48. 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 full-orbed glorious completeness which is in the great Divine Model, ‘their Father which is in heaven,’” (Source: http://biblehub.com/commentaries/jfb//matthew/5.htm).
“5:43-48 The Jewish teachers by neighbour understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a nobler principle than most men act by. Others salute their brethren, and embrace those of their own party, and way, and opinion, but we must not so confine our respect. It is the duty of Christians to desire, and aim at, and press towards perfection in grace and holiness. And therein we must study to conform ourselves to the example of our heavenly Father, 1Pe 1:15,16. Surely more is to be expected from the followers of Christ than from others; surely more will be found in them than in others. Let us beg of God to enable us to prove ourselves his children,” (Source: http://biblehub.com/commentaries/mhc/matthew/5.htm)
OTHER CROSS-REFERENCES FOR MATTHEW 5:48:
1 Peter 1:15-16 / Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
15 But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.
Deuteronomy 18:13 / New King James Version (NKJV)
13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.
Ahh! As a Christ-Follower, I am already blameless through Jesus Christ. See the following verse:
Colossians 1:21-23 / New Living Translation (NLT)
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
Verse 22 is the key verse that is the cross-reference for Matthew 5:48. I am perfected through Jesus and how He died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sin and wrongdoing.
2 Samuel 22:31 / New Living Translation (NLT)
31 “God’s way is perfect.
All the Lord’s promises prove true.
He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
So, I am made perfect through the crucifixion and Jesus Christ. But, I learn how to act more like God through being in the Word of God (2 Sam. 22:31) and as I reach forward toward the prize of heaven (Phil. 3:12-14).
2 Corinthians 7:1 / GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
7 Since we have these promises, dear friends, we need to cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit and live a holy life in the fear of God.
Wow. So, I need to be in the Bible, so I can know the promises. I am cleaned through Jesus Christ, but I need to be made aware of my sin so I don’t repeat it (see Psalm 139:23-24 after this). I can then live a holy life through the death of Jesus on the Christ, and my belief in Him, as I strive to live a continual fear of God and reverence for Him. This is how to live a life of perfection.
I can ask Him to pray about what I need to change in my life so I can bring Him more glory:
Psalm 139:23-24 / Expanded Bible (EXB)
23 God, ·examine [investigate; search; v. 1] me and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any ·bad thing [hurtful way] in me.
Lead me on the ·road to everlasting life [L everlasting/or ancient way].
God will show me what in my life need to be shaped and formed more around Him and His Word, if I just pray, be in the Word, fear and revere Him and the Word, and focus on eternity. This is living perfection in the Lord and is being like Him in His perfection.
Wow. Wonder of Wonders.
**~** PRAYER JOURNALING QUESTIONS
1 Write a summary of what you learned today in this reading.
2 What really jumped out at you and why?
3 What did you say to God?
4 What did God say to you?
5 What are you going to apply to your life? How?
(Image credit: Microsoft images online 2009-2014.)
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