Day 34 | Perfection Application

Read Matthew 5:43–48; Philippians 3:12–21

In Matthew 5:48, Jesus ends this section about loving your enemies by saying, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In this verse, Jesus was not telling us not to be what we consider perfect: with no flaws or shortcomings. The word “perfect,” in fact, also means to be complete. Jesus implies that to be perfect (or complete) is to love others and seek their best interest just like God does, which reflects His perfect character. Children often look and act like their parents, so should we look like and resemble our Heavenly Father.

As we grow, we should always strive to resemble God in His perfection and look forward to where God is calling us. For Paul, he talks of looking forward in Philippians 3:12–21. His goal is to fully know Christ’s resurrection power and dwell with Him in the coming age. Paul is made aware of his imperfections and knows more growth still needs to occur in him. Paul is not perfect, and he makes it a point to make every effort to imitate Christ as a child imitates their father.

In our hearts, we should constantly have the desire to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect by genuinely loving others as we trust in His perfect plan that He has laid out for us. Are we always going to love perfectly, like our Heavenly Father, on our own? Not likely, as perfect love is impossible for us to complete by human standards, but with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can truly love our neighbors. As for our human standards, it is not always easy to surrender what we believe to be the perfect plan or way to do things,
which is why we need to remember to recognize His ways as completely, and truly perfect.

Pray for 10 minutes