Matthew 5:48

Matthew 5:48 is the forty-eighth and final verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the final verse of the final antithesis, and it is a summary of Jesus' earlier teachings.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

The formulation is this verse is known as the Imitatio Dei; a similar verse appears at Luke 6:36. The verse might be modeled on Leviticus 19:2, which says in the King James: "Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, You shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy."

There is some debate about the meaning of the injunction to be "perfect," since orthodox Christianity teaches that creatures cannot achieve God's level of perfection.

The term rendered "perfect" in most English translations is τέλειοι (teleioi), the same word used in the Septuagint for תָּמִים and meaning "brought to its end, finished; lacking nothing necessary to completeness.". According to Barnes, "Originally, it is applied to a piece of mechanism, as a machine that is complete in its parts. Applied to people, it refers to completeness of parts, or perfection, where no part is defective or wanting." Some link the Gospel's use of the term with its use by the Greek philosophers. To them something was perfect if it fully be its intended function.

One commentary offers, "Manifestly, our Lord here speaks, not of degrees of excellence, but of the kind of excellence which was to distinguish His disciples and characterize His kingdom. When therefore He adds, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect—He refers to that full-orbed glorious completeness which is in the great Divine Model, 'their Father which is in heaven.'" Other scholars believe that Jesus is here setting a goal that is certain to be impossible, so that we will realize this and be humble. The pursuit of perfection is important, even if the attainment of it impossible.

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