You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48
Stuck smack in the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is this command to be perfect. What? Perfect like God is? Impossible. In Ephesians, Paul tells Christians to be imitators of God. The dictionary calls an imitator a person who copies the behavior or actions of another. Well, that makes it sound a wee bit easier, perhaps. How does God behave?
He loves people. He hates sin. He is giving and forgiving.
Note that you are not merely to be an admirer of God. He wants you to live the same way that Jesus gave when He walked the Earth—close up and personal. Love people, He says. 1 John 4:8 reads, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” He wants you to do as He does and hate sin. Psalm 97:10 begins, “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” God gave you His Son and through His atoning death, you have forgiveness. He has said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” One can’t help but think of the extreme sacrifice in life-giving service these days than that of the doctors and nurses who have tended to coronavirus patients—some of them suffering death themselves. And, of course, out of all that love flows forgiveness. “As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive” (Colossians 3:13).
Look into your spiritual mirror. Are you a reflection of God? Seek His face and He will help you, as He promised! Pray that as America begins to recover from the virus pandemic a new reflection of the love of God will permeate the nation, and that it will “infect” the whole country.
Today’s Verse: Matthew 5:48
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Ephesian 4:25-5:2
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
