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

Is Matthew 5:48 saying that men and women can become perfect in life on this earth, or that they should be able to reach a sinless perfection here? Is that really Biblical? If you read the preceding text, beginning in verse 43, you can tell that in it's immediate context, the word "perfect" doesn't mean sinless. The word in the Greek used in verse 48 for perfect is, "teleios." As far as it is applied to men, it's speaking of men of a physically fully grown stature. Jesus is telling them to take after their Father and "act like grown-ups," to my way of thinking.

Jesus taught us that all of mankind shares a sin problem. In Romans 3 we are told that everyone has sinned and has fallen short of God's glory. Truly, who could match up to God's glory? The answer is obvious. No one could. That's why Romans 24, 25 and 26 have such meaning for us, and should have such meaning for all mankind.

Verse 27 asks, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith."

We are born into this world because our wonderful God allows it to happen. We can be born again and be forgiven our sins because our wonderful God died on the Cross for us. He did that because we can't be perfect here on earth.
Jesus spoke metaphorically about sin to illustrate what a rip-off sin is in people's lives. He spoke of it as "blindness," "sickness," "darkness," as being "enslaved" and in "bondage." He also taught that it isn't just our external actions that constitute sin, but our inner thoughts as well. More toward the end of his ministry, the Apostle Paul, who wrote over half of the New Testament books, referred to himself as the chief of sinners.

By society's standards, I'm a decent guy. I don't get drunk, I don't beat up on others, I treat my wife well, I pay my bills, my taxes and I'm generally pretty easy-going. That kind of thing. But I know my heart. I know what I think sometimes, and if you knew my heart, you probably wouldn't want to be around me. If I truly knew your heart, I might not want to hang around with you either, that is if we didn't know the truth about hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that ; "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?"

Jesus taught us that "out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." (Mark 21 and 22)

God knows our hearts, and probably better than we ever will. Nothing about our hearts gets past Him, but because of what Jesus did for us, when we turn to Him and ask for His forgiveness, He doesn't hold anything against us, and we shouldn't hold the knowledge of our hearts against one another either. Our hearts are what they are, but we are supposed to allow out hearts to overcome, by letting our hearts be overcome by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.

We can't be perfect in this life on earth as Christians, any more than Paul, or any of the other Apostles could. That type of state is reserved for life after this earth and it will still be supplied by our God. Here, He is to be our example. Even when we see men or women with a faith and walk that we secretly may envy, people in the body that we admire and deeply love, we know that they are frail and imperfect beings. This is not to say that we are to just blow perfection off and give up. It's to say instead that we should glory in the perfection of the Lord and know that He graciously changes hearts into something better.

God's perfection is like a high-jump bar. God did not lower His perfect bar for mankind. Instead He kept it where it is and even though we can't ever hope to clear it by ourselves without fault, we can have faith and trust in Him, being thankful that it's He that produces righteousness in our lives.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1st John 1:9

Being believers, we walk with Him in faith His righteousness is reproduced on a daily basis. This is one of the many wonderful reasons we need to go to Him every day. He didn't die on the Cross for nothing. He meant for us to pour out our hearts on Him and to constantly be in an attitude of prayer and gratefulness. This is one of the ways we grow and mature in Him. It is the only way that we can have His righteousness grow in us.

Having said all of that, does God demand perfection from us now? Absolutely. Who can say they are worthy to be called perfect? Only Him. Only He is worthy. Only His righteousness will bring us to Him. Nothing else. God is perfect and completely good and without fault, and He still loves us, showing that love to us by forgiving our sins because He's perfect. I still don't have my head completely around that and it's one of the many reasons I love Him.