What does this mean?

Though I am a Christian, and read the bible, there are some rare parts that stop me in my tracks, this is one:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:48

So, God in heaven creates a planet full of imperfect humans, then send his son Jesus who command's them to "be perfect"

- and just how are they supposed to do that?

@mchill said
Though I am a Christian, and read the bible, there are some rare parts that stop me in my tracks, this is one:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:48

So, God in heaven creates a planet full of imperfect humans, then send his son Jesus who command's them to "be perfect"

- and just how are they supposed to do that?

@mchill said
Though I am a Christian, and read the bible, there are some rare parts that stop me in my tracks, this is one:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:48

So, God in heaven creates a planet full of imperfect humans, then send his son Jesus who command's them to "be perfect"

- and just how are they supposed to do that?

@ghost-of-a-duke said
A mortal father will tell their infant, 'be good,' even when 'being good' is a precarious business for a three-year-old. What the father is really saying is, 'try and be good.' The instruction is aspirational.

So when the bible tells you to be perfect to to 'go and sin no more,' I think you are being instructed to strive to be good, to strive to be perfect. The biblical God is fully aware of human weaknesses.

I dunno myself though I just had this moment in thought where someone's belief, motivation, their psyche or determination if you will can surpass their actual strength and beyond what's humanly explainable. Other sources suggest either intelligence or physicality can become so perfect it's alienlike. You might call it a completion of your full potential. The point is you can know this, glimpse a feeling strong enough to belive it and compel you forward in your abilities.

@of-ants-and-imps said
I dunno myself though I just had this moment in thought where someone's belief, motivation, their psyche or determination if you will can surpass their actual strength and beyond what's humanly explainable. Other sources suggest either intelligence or physicality can become so perfect it's alienlike. You might call it a completion of your full potential. The point is ...[text shortened]... an know this, glimpse a feeling strong enough to belive it and compel you forward in your abilities.

@mchill said
Though I am a Christian, and read the bible, there are some rare parts that stop me in my tracks, this is one:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:48

So, God in heaven creates a planet full of imperfect humans, then send his son Jesus who command's them to "be perfect"

- and just how are they supposed to do that?

"You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48 Recovery Version)

I take the verse as an exhortation yet also as a prophecy. In the conclusion of the Bible in Revelation 21 and 22 every single person in history who has ever received the divine life of the "heavenly Father" will perfected in love for God and one another into a corporate city of fully matured and glorified sons of God called "New Jerusalem" .

God is not just their Creator but their life imparting Father.
Not only are they "born of God" but finally grown up in God made ready to
be a living habitation of God. That is prepared to be a a match, counterpart, and
bride / wife matching Jesus Christ.

God has time to work this out in every saved person and predestinated us who are saved TO this perfection. We shall be in this perfection because the divine life of the Father shall swallow us up, saturate us, permeate us, conform us and transform us, that the Lord's exhortation / prophecy cannot fail to be realized in eternity future.

Now many who have only a tiny attention span will hardly be able to read more mchill. But the question is profound and deserves some in depth response. This is just my first pass.

Number 1 - I would advise the Christian take exhortation FIRST as prophetic, as prediction, as prophecy -

"You therefore shall be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect."

@sonship said
"You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48 Recovery Version)

I take the verse as an exhortation yet also as a prophecy. In the conclusion of the Bible in Revelation 21 and 22 every single person in history who has ever received the divine life of the "heavenly Father" will perfected in love for God and ...[text shortened]... as prophecy -

"You therefore shall be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect."

@mchill said
Though I am a Christian, and read the bible, there are some rare parts that stop me in my tracks, this is one:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:48

So, God in heaven creates a planet full of imperfect humans, then send his son Jesus who command's them to "be perfect"

- and just how are they supposed to do that?

"You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 45:48 RcV)

Only because of the life of the begetting Father can any perfection be arrived at. Because God has a way to impart His life into our created life and spread into our created life can any "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" be grown into, be achieved, be developed.

"Your heavenly FATHER" is the KEY to the exhortation and prophecy. God's divine and eternal life can be impregnated into the born again human being. God's divine life as his or her heavenly Father can swallow up that person given enough time, is the destiny of every reborn child of the begetting Father.

The Apostle Paul says that we who are saved will be "swallowed up" by this divine life of God.

" . . . that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life." (2 Cor. 5:4)

Sin, death, and mortality are to be swallowed up in the full climax of Christ's salvation.

"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality, then the word which is written will come to pass, "Death has been swallowed up unto victory." (1 Cor. 15:54)
That is from without.

Then there is the saturating from within also. The Lord Spirit within is transforming us into the same image of Christ. This is a destiny which we can only prolong but cannot halt indefinitely.

"And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit." ( 2 Cor. 3:17,18)

The Spirit of the Lord Jesus - the "Lord" / Spirit within the reborn human being has the face of Jesus in the spiritual heart. And by gazing into the impression of the very face of Jesus His Holy Spirit takes the beholder from glory to glory to glory by degrees to be transformed into the same image.

Take "You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." firstly as prediction. This is the destiny marked out for the one trusting in Jesus Christ.

From one degree of expression to the next, to the next, to the next - - "from glory to glory" the Father will with His Spirit "metabolically" transform us into the image that matches Christ.

This is also according to the eternal plan of God that Christ be the Firstborn of many brothers in life.

"And we know that all thins work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified." (Rom. 8:28-20)

Mchill, these verses I offer to FIRST have you regard the exhortation / prophecy of Matthew 5:48 as a marked out destiny to which "perfection" we who trust in Jesus Christ will be brought into by the begetting Father through His life, through His indwelling Spirit.

After seeing this aspect of Matthew 5:48 we can examine together more of the exhortation side - "You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

@suzianne said
Jesus was sent to earth not only so that God could have the experience of being human, but to show humans the ideal to strive for, to show that yes, it is possible.

The Beatles famously said that, "Love is all you need." Well, add Faith to the mix, and you're very nearly there.

@medullah said
Man was perfect until Adam sinned. On the basis of the mosaic law “soul will be for soul” a provision was made for an exchange or ransom - which is why Jesus gave his life.

God did not create flawed beings, but after Satan successfully tempted Eve, a plan “b” was needed. Once the current situation is dealt with I’m confident that the original purpose for the earth and mankind will be realised.

Rajk999, ever eager to disagree with me writes:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48 KJV)