Matthew 5:48

Be ye therefore perfect. — Literally, Ye therefore shall be perfect — the ideal future that implies an imperative.

Your Father which is in heaven. — The better reading gives, your heavenly Father. The idea of perfection implied in the word here is that of the attainment of the end or ideal completeness of our being. In us that attainment implies growth, and the word is used (e.g., in 1 Corinthians 2:6; Hebrews 5:14) of men of full age as contrasted with infants. In God the perfection is not something attained, but exists eternally, but we draw near to it and become partakers of the divine nature when we love as He loves:

— — — “Earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.”