Aim High

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt 5:48)

Jesus is clearly using hyperbole at some points in his sermon. (“If your right eye causes you to sin…”) Yet in this command to be perfect I don’t sense any hyperbole. I also don’t think it implies that perfection is humanly possible. But I think Jesus clearly wanted to set a very high standard for us. In the process of sanctification there is no point at which we can say, “Good enough” and stop. It’s like what we teach the teenagers. Don’t ask “how far is too far” – it’s the wrong question. We should not be concerned with what we can get away with but how we can be more like Jesus. Lord, you have set a high standard and I don’t ever want to settle for less. Help me to become more like you. I cannot do it on my own.