Christians - Can You Explain This Scripture Verse To Me?

Question

Hi.

I believe that by nature and because of what the Bible says, that we are all sinners, so in Matthew 5:48 where Jesus says that we are to be perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect, did he literally mean perfect?

I take the Bible literally, so I would prefer to hear from spiritually mature Christians who take this same view as I do. This is one of those verses that perplexes me, and I would really appreciate the clarification. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes he meant perfect in a literal sense" If you had only as much
faith as a mustard seed you could move mountains"

Answer 2

He is speaking of perfection in a spiritual sense. Not perfection in a literal sense. The struggle for spiritual perfection is the hardest task that God has set for us as humans. But... man is not a perfect being... only God can assume perfection. Just the ambition and the trials that we go through on a daily basis trying to be the Christian that God wants us to be is the perfection he seeks. You say that you take the Bible literally... don't. The Bible was not penned by the hand of our creator... IT WAS INSPIRED by him and written by scholars and prophets and apostles.... human beings... and we are reading their interpretations. Twenty people can read the same passages from the Bible and you will have twenty different opinions on what was being said. So don't be so hard on yourself, if the Bible was easy to read and follow then being a perfect Christian would be a simple thing, but since it is not, just be at peace with your self and your faith that you are still seeking the grace and goodness of our Lord through his teachings. Peace.

Answer 3

The Holy Bible Douay-Rheims Version

With Challoner Revisions 1749-52
1899 Edition of the John Murphy Company

IMPRIMATUR:
James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899.

Pope Damasus assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Roman Council in 382 A.D. He commissioned St. Jerome to translate the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin, which became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and was declared by the Church to be the only authentic and official version, in 1546.

The DR New Testament was first published by the English College at Rheims in 1582 A.D. The DR Old Testament was first published by the English College at Douay in 1609 A.D. The first King James Version was not published until 1611. This online DRV contains all 73 books, including the seven Deutero-Canonical books (erroneously called Apocrypha by Protestants). These seven books were included in the 1611 KJV, but not in later KJV Bibles.

The whole Douay-Rheims Bible was revised and diligently compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner in 1749-1752 A.D. The notes included in the text were written by Dr. Challoner.

The DR Bible was photographically reproduced from the 1899 edition of the John Murphy Company, Baltimore, Maryland, by Tan Books in 1971. Eventually, this edition was optically scanned to produce a large text file which this publisher used for creating this website, with the aid of text-processing software.

One important goal of this project was to preserve the original text "as is", without making any changes in the wording, because the original text had the Imprimatur of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, dated Sept 1st 1899.

The text file was checked quite thoroughly by software written by the publisher for punctuation errors and verses out of order. The index was humanly checked for misspelled words and the corrections were made to the text. However, some spelling errors may still be present in the text. Many verses were out of order in the original file. These have been corrected.

Every effort was made to ensure that this online version is an exact match to the original printed version. No words were added or ommitted from the text, except for correcting errors caused by the scanning process. No words were rearranged. No verse numbers were changed, except in the case of Psalm 9.

Psalm 9 originally contained 21 verses and there were 2 versions of Psalm 10, numbering 1-18 and 1-8. This obviously caused a conflict, so it was decided to make the first Psalm 10 as the last part of Psalm 9 and renumber the verses 22-39. This retains the same numbering as all the Douay Rheims. Note, in the Protestant Bibles the numbering of Psalms 10 through 146 differs by one.

Answer 4

Usually, "perfection" in the King James Bible should have been translated as "complete" or "mature". I certainly believe in the importance of taking the Bible literally. Know that although we may not be perfect in practice, because of justification we are perfect in our position before God. As one answerer said, we strive for perfection. This perfection will be realized or actualized on the other side of eternity. God Bless You.

Answer 5

The context of vs 48 is built on Love,

We must strive to show love, or be perfect in love as our Heavenly Father is.

Granted we will never reach that perfection but that does not stop us from trying.

Matt 5:14-16 says our works should shine so that other can see, Love is one of those works.

Answer 6

That is not what you are reading.
I think you are reading into one verse.
Jesus is explaining how to act around others. He states that if you only greet a Christian brother that is not the intention of God.
God will meet all as you should too.
The analogy of being perfect relates to treatment of others.
Example....
Love your neighbor and pray for your enemies.
Jesus sat and ate with tax collectors and prostitutes because they were the ones that needed saving and redemption.
He made them feel comfortable.
It is easy to sit with a Christian brother but means more to God if you extend your righteousness to all.
Ïf you love those that love you, where is the reward? Love those that hate you and when they end up loving you, there is the reward.

Hope I helped.
God Bless.

Answer 7

I believe it to be where by I strive to be perfect in how I live, to be honest, loving, and compassionate toward all people, this perplexes me to because there are people and things that I simply do not like, I am a very opinionated person so needless to say I do spend a lot of time in confession, my priest tells me I am to out spoken. I believe our freedom of speech and our opinions are being oppressed by minority groups, and government, Jesus not only taught his followers, he also spoke his mind, he openly expressed his anger too. So to be perfect as our father in heaven is not a human trait to many of us ever meets. God Bless.

Answer 8

Absolutely!

I'm surprised to encounter a person that realizes that people are all evil; although we also have good in us and that is what we have to use rather than the evil within us. It's a thing of conquering our evil side and maintaining it under our control.

Perfection is what is demanded, and those who achieve it will serve by the our Lord the Creator's side. Getting as close to perfection as possible and making true efforts towards it will get you into that kingdom.

Answer 9

There are two messages central messages in the Bible, one is the Law and one is the Gospel. The Law is what God demands of us, it shows us how we have sinned and need a Savior. The Gospel is undeserved love and the promises that God has made to us. Jesus bore the punishment of our sins and promises to forgive us and give us an eternal home in heaven.

The passage you listed is a Law passage, we cannot keep the Law perfectly, it shows us how much we need Jesus who did keep the Law perfectly for us. We do our best to keep those Law commands given to us out of thankfulness for the wonderful things God has done for us. Our salvation is only through Jesus Christ though.

Lord's blessings on your studies.

Answer 10

This is one of the best verses to show us just how much we need Jesus. The Father can't have anything to do with unrighteousness. When we come to Jesus He takes our sin and gives us His righteousness. Therefore in Christ we have the perfection of God. Those without Jesus live outside that and have to live perfect a prefect life (impossible)... Rejoice because you and I are brothers in the promise of Life because we have the righteousness of Christ.... Jim

Answer 11

It is Gods perfection to do good to those who hate Him even as we all once did. He forgives sin and is good to even the unjust and we are to be like Him. (see the previous verses). We are taught that we always in this life are sinners so Jesus is not tellinig us we can be without sin but He is stressing that that is the goal of the one who loves Him. Knowing we will be with out sin in the next life and that God hates sin we are to set our sights and goal even now and to strive to live in obedience to Him and the way He here teaches in in loving our enemies.