Jesus
Be Ye Therefore Perfect
     Index     
Return to:   Site   or   Sages   Description

Acceptance               Acceptance Description               Human Nature Description               Idea of God               Kingdom Not Divided (Jesus)               Morality

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"
               Matthew 5:48

The verse follows Jesus' admonitions to reject the old laws and follow his "But I say unto you" suggestions. Don't punish an "eye for an eye" but give the thief your other coat on his way out, and several other examples of "turn the other cheek". I think Chapter 5 is only examples. I read the underlying message to be: "Don't judge." But I read it as just a suggestion "offered only for your own peace while you await the final judgment which neither you nor I are qualified to make, only our Father. It's all perfect, our Father made it that way." So what is perfection?

Not judging (good, evil, better, worse, immoral, moral, sin, salvation, etc.) itself a judgment.

Quite different perhaps from "repent" and be always remorseful for your sins. I believe verse summarizes Jesus take on "the law of old". My take on what he meant

"cast off sin and virtue, cast off good and evil, cast off such division of your house, your kingdom, God's kingdom, which is not divided, your self, leave sin out of your mind and you will be back in the Garden of Eden, before Adam bit the apple, perfect, as God is, without CONCEPT of good and evil, of sin and punishment, virtue and reward. So, forget all that and be perfect, i.e. accept the way you are, and all others too. Judge not, neither yourself, others, nor nature, including nature's inexorable death. Accept. Your choice. I just offer the platter. And how many in my name turned my golden platter of forgiveness and acceptance into iron knives of condemnation and punishment? Drop evil and be perfect; endorse evil and be not perfect. Acceptance of the world as it is, not as it "should" be.