Matthew 5:48

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

Be ye therefore, [ Esesthe (G2071) oun (G3767)] - rather, 'Ye shall therefore be,' or 'Ye are therefore to be,' as My disciples and in My kingdom --

Perfect, [ teleioi (G5046)], 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." [`Your heavenly Father' - ouranios (G3770) - is here the preferable reading.]

Remarks:

(1) In the light of this Section what shall we think of those low views of the Old Testament which have long been current in Germany, even among the most distinguished theologians and critics, and which from them have passed over to this country and across the Atlantic; poisoning some otherwise well affected to evangelical truth, and introducing a principle of laxity into their whole Biblical system? Not to speak of our Lord's solemn asseverations of the enduring authority of "the Law and the Prophets," and the honour in which they were to lie held in His kingdom: who can read with intelligence, impartiality, and reverential docility, the illustrations which our Lord here gives of the spirituality and breadth of the ancient law, in opposition to the detestable perversions of it under which His hearers had grown up, without perceiving that instead of supplanting or even modifying it-which some excellent critics have too hastily conceded-the highest position toward the ancient law which our Lord hers assumes, is that of its supreme and authoritative Interpreter? It is only the glorious comprehensiveness, the pure spirituality, the self-evidencing truth, and the heavenly radiance of His interpretations of the law-transcending, it is true, everything which we read in the Old Testament-that has deceived many into the notion that we have here a more or less new code of morals; a thing as contrary to a sound exposition of this section as derogatory to the honour of God's ancient law. And if this is not to be endured, much less the Romish notion that all our Lord's teachings here are but 'evangelical counsels' (consilia evangelica), or counsels of perfection-not obligatory upon any, but the more meritorious in counsels' (consilia evangelica), or counsels of perfection-not obligatory upon any, but the more meritorious in those who can work themselves up to them.

(2) After reading such spiritual and searching expositions of the law, with what force is the apostolic inference borne in upon the awakened conscience, "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin"! (Romans 3:20.) The whole doctrinal system, indeed, of the Epistle to the Romans is seminally contained in the Gospels; but this truth in particular is written here as with a sunbeam. And yet, there are those who take refuge, from the pretended severity of the Pauline doctrine, in the Sermon on the Mount-as if it were of a milder type. We have ourselves heard the Jews chanting in the synagogue the praises of the law, while rejecting Him who alone can deliver them from the curse of it; but what better are those called Christians who turn away from the Pauline doctrine of Justification to that teaching from the Mount which, but for this Pauline doctrine the awakened conscience cannot abide-a teaching which, but for salvation by free grace, makes us feel ourselves standing under a very different Mount from that of the Beatitudes, beneath whose thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and voices the people exclaimed, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:19). Now this, without doubt, was what our Lord in the first instance sought to produce by so constructing His Sermon on the Mount. Accordingly,

(3) Who that weighs the faint exposition we have given of the holy teaching of this Section, can fail to see the wisdom with which our Lord selected this line of thought for the first formal proclamation of the principles of His kingdom, rather than anything more definite, regarding the Lamb of God" which was to take away the sin of the world"? While this would have been of little avail to such a motley assemblage, "alive without the law" and "at ease in Zion," nothing could be better fitted to dash vain expectations from Him of support to the reigning ideas; to rouse to anxious thought as many as were prepared to give Him even a respectful hearing; and to humble to the dust the thoroughly awakened, and create in them longings after further light and solid rest to their troubled souls.

(4) When will Christians strive in earnest, as one man, to carry out the law of love, in respect of 'causeless anger,' here laid down? That little of it is to be seen at present is but too manifest; but that, if resolutely and habitually exemplified, it would astonish and impress the world around them more than all other arguments in favour of Christianity, who can doubt? O brother-sister-in Christ, blush, first of all, that thy Lord hath spoken to thee from the Mount so much in vain, and hath hitherto gotten so little testimony from thee. Then, on thy knees, pledge thyself to Him anew, and in strength divine make it thy daily business, whether in the quiet walks of domestic conversation, or in the busy haunts of a more public calling, to exemplify the law of love here expounded. Nor, if thou hast broken it, despair or rest contented; but quickly repair, at any cost to feeling, the wrong thou hast hastily done to a brother, whether by unwarrantable anger in thy heart, or by unmerited and unbecoming rudeness of speech. Failing this, every act of worship offered to the Searcher of hearts will be vain (Psalms 66:18), and should rather be interrupted until thou hast come to one with thy brother, than performed with a guilty conscience. (See Job 42:8.)

(5) In vain do Romanists plead for the sacrifice of the mass, and some Protestants for "altars" in the Christian Church, from the "gifts brought to the altar," to which our Lord alludes in this Section. Spoken to Jews while the temple service was in full force, such language was altogether natural; it was most intelligible; it was life-like. But how far such things would or would not remain under an economy which was to supersede the Jewish, must be decided, not by such phraseology occurring here, but by other considerations altogether.

(6) When we see how naturally our Lord rose, in His teaching, from disputes between man and man to the great controversy between man and God (Matthew 5:25), it should be our study to imitate such spirituality-even in ordinary conversation, but much more in teaching-and to make the immediate settlement of the great question of peace with God the paramount subject of all we say and teach on eternal things. (7) The sense in which our Lord here uses the phrase "be reconciled" [ diallageethi (G1259) Matthew 5:24 ], is to be carefully noted, as the expression has been laid hold of to subvert the proper doctrine of the Atonement. It has been confidently affirmed that God is nowhere said to be reconciled to us-as if any change were needed, or possible, in the Unchangeable One toward men-but always we are said to be reconciled to God. In proof of this we are referred to 2 Corinthians 5:18 - "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself ... Now then ... we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." But since our Lord, in this Sermon on the Mount, when He requires the offending party to 'be reconciled to his offended brother,' plainly means-not that the offender is to get rid of the cause of offence in him own breast, or to banish all doubts of his brother's willingness to forgive him-but that he is to take steps toward obtaining his brother's forgiveness, or getting his brother's just displeasure against himself removed; so in the words quoted from the Epistle to the Corinthians, the world's reconciliation to God by Jesus Christ, as a thing already accomplished-which is the great fact that the Gospel ministry is appointed to publish-cannot possibly mean any change which has come over the world's views of God: it can only mean the altered view of the world which God takes in consequence of Christ's death; or, to speak more properly, a new relation in which He stands to it as reconciled through that death; and it is when we "set to our seal that this is true," that we "are reconciled to God," for it must take effect on both sides.

(8) If we would avoid sin we must cut off the occasions of it. This obvious rule solves a great many casuistical questions, as to how far Christians may warrantably go to this place and that, or join in this amusement and that. It is not enough to show that there is no express divine prohibition of them. If what the eyes see, and the hands handle, is found to suck one into the vortex of sin, it is no more to be indulged at such expense than if we should pluck them out, and cut them off, and cast them from us. A hard saying this, some will say. But a harder still, our Lord would answer, if I tell you these eyes and hands will otherwise drag you down to hell. No soft, silken teaching is this; and yet it is the teaching of Him to whom some affect to retreat as that of 'the meek and lowly Jesus,' from what they deem the harsh notes of the apostle of the Gentiles. To such one would be disposed to say, "Jesus I how, and Paul I know, but who are ye?" (Acts 19:15).

(9) What sanctity is stamped upon the married life by our Lord's teaching here, especially when taken in connection with His teaching on the subject of purity in general! (Matthew 5:28).

(10) By cutting off all swearing in ordinary conversation, with what sacredness is lawful swear ing invested; especially when the presence of God, as the Avenger of falsehood, is seen to be invoked even when not expressly named!

(11) Were simple truth to be so reverend in the eye, and dear to the heart of every genuine disciple of Christ, that all around them were constrained to regard their "Yes" and "No" as far more be trusted than the most solemn asseverations of others, what a testimony would thus be borne to Him to whom they owe their all! And why should it not be universally so? But,

(12) What shall we say to the concluding expositions of this section? To what a God-like height-not only of forbearance with those who wrong us, and submission to unreasonable demands, but of well-doing to the uttermost in return for ill-doing of the worst-does Jesus teach His disciples to rise! They are not to deem it enough to be as good as others, or, up to the current standard, or 'neighbour-like.' As "the light of the world" and "the salt of the earth," their walk is to be a model for others, as their Heavenly Father Himself is to be their Model. (See Colossians 3:14; 1 John 4:16.) Does any ingenuous disciple ask, But how is this to be attained and carried out? Let him hear the answer from the same blessed lips, "I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for if ye, being evil, know how give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit we them that ask Him?" (Luke 11:9; Luke 11:13). And if we do but think; that it was when we were enemies that we ourselves were reconciled to God by the death of His Son (Romans 5:10), can we choose but extend that love to any enemies, even the greatest, that we may have among our fellow-men?