Fallen and Flawed

Matt 5:48 is an interesting text, but wouldn’t exactly call it halting. It’s something to be expected, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it reflected a well-preserved and quite authentic early Jesus tradition. The Jesus Seminar translation sounds a bit different: “To sum up, you are to be as liberal in your love as your heavenly Father is”. In fact, the same Greek word, meaning both “perfect” and “mature” is found in 1 Cor 14:20, where Paul calls on Christians not to be babies but “mature/perfect”.

Most spiritual systems include a call to strive for spiritual perfection. I find it natural that we find one in the gospels too. Perfection is something we should all aim for, even though we know we can never full achieve it.

Jag,

What is halting about this text is that Jesus tells us to be perfect, not in the sense that we should aim for perfection, but in the sense equal to God the Father. That’s a daunting task. So we must stop and look at what this means. Many people have misinterpreted this into Jesus talking about Christian Perfectionism. So again, we have to see what he’s talking about, and that means we have to bring in context.

I will talk about that in the next installment of this series.

In relation to my previous comment, when we line this up with the fact that we have no goodness or perfection in and of ourselves, this becomes very halting. We bring nothing to the table but repentance and submission.

Your last line nailed an important point: “Your job is to not skip over it as though it has no immediate, or even future bearing in your life.”

We must approach the Bible with faith, expecting God to both speak to the present and prepare us for the future.

You are exactly right, Daniel.

Even when we don’t have faith, this does not mean God is speaking something to us presently. Our lack of belief has no influence on delaying God’s voice. Therefore, we must pay attention to the Word, for He is speaking to us through it.

Correction to above comment. What I meant to say:

“Even when we don’t have faith, this does not mean God is not speaking something to us presently.”

Jonathan – the texts says what it says, and it is a bit vague too. It can be expected that different people will interpret it differently. I may not be a Christian perfectionist, but I can never be sure that my interpretation is better than theirs.

Thanks, Jag.

I like what your writing here. I will stop by and read more later on.

JS

Thanks Jon! Glad you stopped by.

Hi Jonathan,

Good stuff. Very good stuff. Thanks.

If Scripture is approached as literature then the reader shouldn’t read it too fast. Good literature has layers of depth and meaning. It is worth reading slowly to better catch places where the author intended the reader to halt and discern something significant.

-Steve

Thanks for your insightful comment, Steve. You make a good point, that the Bible is literature. Therefore, we must read it literally, not in the sense that allegory is not used, but in the sense that we use principles of interpretation.

Good insight!

Hey Steve,

Good point about the Bible being literature. Recently I have been mulling: What (if any) are the specific differences between literature analysis and Bible study? (not the differences between the Bible and other books).

Anyone want to share some thoughts?

Some of my literature professors have been the best interpreters. If only they were also theologians.

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