Be a perfect person
Be a perfect person
Be a perfect person
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5/4
The word So indicates that it is a conclusion.
It is a summary of those already mentioned. He is expressing God’s perfect love and mercy to those who listen to Jesus. So he requires them to be perfect. For your Father who is in heaven is good to the ungrateful and the wicked. (Luke 6/35), Jesus called you so that you can stand before men and angels as perfect as He is because He has exalted you.
The conditions of eternal life, like those in Paradise, are under grace; it requires perfect righteousness, union with God, complete conformity to God’s law. The behavior required in the Old Testament is the same as that required in the New Testament. This measure of behavior is not beyond our reach. With each commandment there is hope. God has promised to make us like Himself; he does this for those who do not defile His grace and who do not conflict with His will.
God loved us with an unspeakable love.
When we begin to give space to His love, which is beyond the breadth, length, and depth of human understanding, it moves us to love Him. By the revelation of Christ’s love, for His love revealed to us while we are sinners, the hard heart is humbled in fear, and the sinner is thereby transformed and becomes a child of God. God does not use a compulsory balance; the instrument He uses to wipe away sin from the heart is love. They are the ones who turn courage into humility, hostility and disbelief into love and faith.
The Jews failed despite their own attempts at perfection. Christ told them that they could not enter the kingdom of God by their own righteousness.
Now he begins to tell them the righteous characteristics that those who are to enter the kingdom of God must have. It was His eyes that He spoke of in every Sermon on the Mount. Now, however, he told her the source; Be ye therefore holy, as God is holy. The law is a reflection of God’s character. God’s guidance reflects His character and is the foundation of His kingdom.
God is love. Like the rays of the sun, love, light and joy descend from Him to His children. It is His nature to give this. God’s life is the source of unselfish love.
His glory is the goodness of His children. His joy is to show love of ownership.
He tells us to be holy like Him.
As He has shown love to the whole world we should be the center of blessing and light around us. We can do nothing on our own, the light of His love shines upon us, and we reflect that light. It means that we can be perfect in our own measure by the goodness we receive from Him, and that God is holy in His measure.
Jesus said, Be ye therefore holy, as your Father is holy. If you are children of God, you will partake of His identity, you cannot be Him, but you will be like Him. Every child lives the life of his father. If you are children of God, you are born of His Spirit, you live by the life of God. In Christ, the Fullness of Godhead dwells (Col 2/9) The Life of Jesus, is manifested in our weak Flesh (2 Cor 4/11)
That life in you will cause you to do what He does by manifesting His character in you. Therefore if you walk in harmony with all the precepts of his law, the law of God is perfect; it will restore life. Ps 19/7 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom8/4
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; Matthew 6/1
Everything Jesus said on the mountain was taught by His life and people failed to understand it. They failed to understand how He could have such power and not use it to defend Himself against what they were doing. Their spirits, motives, and uses were the opposite of His. Although they claim to be zealous for the observance of the law, their focus is on self-respect; Jesus, however, revealed that self-love is a transgression of the law. The guidelines the Jews quote are the characteristics of human beings throughout the ages. The spirit of the Pharisees is the spirit of the sons of men; The comparison of Jesus’ character and His Spirit with that of the scribes is a lesson for all ages.
When Jesus was on earth, there were Pharisees who were constantly trying to get heaven to turn to them and therefore to get the glory and riches of the world that they thought heaven had rewarded them with. They also tried to gain purity, honor, and reputation by giving to others.
Jesus rebuked their hypocrisy.
God told him that He would not accept such service. He also warned those who worked to gain the admiration of others that the admiration of men would be their ultimate reward.
When you give gifts of mercy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Let your gifts be in secret: your God who sees what is done in secret will reward you openly.
Jesus is not saying that goodness must always be secret. When Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about the Christians in Macedonia, he did not dock their generosity which was now to the point of self-sacrifice, he thanked them for it and asked others to follow that example. He wrote to the Corinthian church, Your zeal has stirred up many of them. 2 Corinthians 9/2
Jesus’ words made it clear that the purpose of giving is not to receive praise or honor from others. True kindness is not done to show off to people. Those who seek praise and praise from others and do good are verbal Christians.
Self-revelation is punishable!
The disciples of Christ pass His glory not to themselves by their good works but to God Who has multiplied grace and power to them.
That work was done by the Holy Spirit; And the Spirit gives glory to Him who gave it, not to Him who received it. When the light of Christ shines upon the soul, every nose is filled with the praise of God. Your prayers, your works, your kindness, your self-denial, are not of your own making. Jesus must be exalted and I must be humbled, so that Christ is fully revealed.
When we do good, it should be out of love for those in need, not to show our kindness. Kindness done from the heart, with righteous motives, is what heaven values most. A soul with true love, who worships with all the heart, is more precious to God than the gold of Ophir.
We need to think of our service, not the reward; however, the goodness done by the Spirit of truth does not go unrewarded. “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Only he who loves receives love. When we give ourselves to the service of others, God gives Himself to us.
No one can flow God’s blessings from within to others without being rewarded by God. The spring that flows along the mountainside has nothing to lose in reaching the sea.

What they give will be returned to them a hundredfold. The flowing fountain of the psalmist gives the gift of fruitfulness behind it. The grass on the banks of the spring is in bloom, the trees are branching, and the apples are in bloom. When the rain is gone and the ground is empty, the network over which the spring flows is green. The one flowing down the mountain to the sea represents God’s blessing on the world.
This is the blessing of those who show warmth to the poor. The prophet Isaiah said, Is it not to give your bread to the hungry, and to the poor that are wandering about, to destroy the naked, and not to turn your backs on your sisters? If you do all these things, your light will rise like the morning sun. Your wounds will heal again quickly; your righteousness shall go before you; and my glory shall be your rear guard. And I the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy you in the dry land: and ye shall be like a garden that hath water continually, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isa 58/7,1
The work of kindness has two blessings. When a person is a blessing to the one who suffers, he is even more blessed himself. The grace of Christ develops in the soul the opposite of selfishness. This makes life cleaner and richer. The secret act of kindness brings both hearts together into the heart that is the source of kindness. Small acts of love and self-sacrifice, often overlooked, but flowing gently like the petals of an apple, bring untold blessings and happiness. Finally, if self-sacrifice and joy in showing kindness to others is still unacceptable on earth, it will be more acceptable in Heaven by showing our union with God. And the King of glory He who was Himself rich became poor for us.
Acts of kindness can be done in secret, and the character of a great kind person cannot be hidden. if we work wholeheartedly as disciples of Christ, our hearts will have a strong relationship with God, and the Spirit of God will move our Spirit to cause the soul to respond to the touch of heaven with a holy response that is consistent with heaven.
He who gives more gifts to those who benefit from the gifts they have been given will reach through Him who gives them power and grace to make their good works known
mmada. Those who sow the growth of perfect Christian character in this world will reap what they sow in the world to come. The work begun on earth reaches its climax in that holy and eternal life.