Key Verse: Verse 48 – "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Key Words: Be ye therefore perfect
The word perfect means fully grown, mature. The admonition from Jesus to His hearers was to be like God the Father.
How do I know that I’m fully grown spiritually? The answer to this question lies in verse 44 of our Scripture reading. You are fully grown when you can consistently love your enemies (notice the word is plural), all your enemies. When you can bless them that curse you. The word curse means those who put you down. You don’t respond in kind, but you bless them. You do good to them that hate you. You pray for them that despitefully use you. When you can do all of the above, you are a mature believer. You are fully grown.
Most of us are thinking, “Well, I’m not there yet!” Well, the goal is to strive to get there.
There is an illustration I like to use when it comes to “being perfect.”
Two frogs fell into a tub of cream. The one looked at the high sides of the tub which were too difficult to crawl over and said, "It is hopeless." So he resigned himself to death, relaxed, and sank to the bottom. The other one determined to keep swimming as long as he could. "Something might happen," he said. And it did. He kept kicking and churning, and finally he found himself on a solid platform of butter and jumped to safety.
What to do:
✞ Remember, anyone can love friends and those who love you; but spiritual maturity is loving those who are your enemies, those who oppose you.
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