Matthew 5:48 Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. I read this and then went to Genesis 17:1 – Abraham is 99 years old and God says, “I am God Almighty. Live in my presence and be blameless.“

In Matthew 5, Jesus is giving what we call “the Sermon on the Mount” – he is casting a big vision – not of the unreachable but of the “Normal Life”. He takes the commandments and applies them to our heart and intention in vv21, 27, &28. He talks about 2nd Mile Ministry, and then the closing section he is talking about loving your neighbors, but more, loving your enemies. That love, embraced and lived out makes us “children of God” in action. The sun shines on the evil and the good. Rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous – Love sees no reward, no relationship, it just sees people in the imagine of God as worthy and in need of love – So, LOVE and then he concludes by saying “be perfect, therefore, as your Father in Heaven is perfect”

We hear that word, “perfect” and we exclude ourselves thinking it doesn’t apply to us, it’s just wishful thinking, but that word (teleios) is about completeness, maturity, that kind of perfection. so

Finish – love your enemy AND your neighbor

Be Mature – Grow Up – if you only (v47) greet your brother and sister, what are you doing that is out of the ordinary even pagans do that.

Be Complete – love like the Father loves, give like the Father gives. If you only love those who love you… where is the reward in that? God is making us to be “out of the ordinary”. This is “Ordinary” that sin created, which is selfish and dying. He wants us to be selfless, complete, mature, Alive! And THAT is Normal – in the Kingdom of God in Christ