Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
One of my cousins referenced this passage to me in a conversation.
In that conversation, I explained to him that it is impossible for us as Christians, or for humans generally, to keep God’s law perfectly and live a perfectly Christian life. He was highly offended by that idea. So, he referenced this passage to me, asking, “Why would God say, ‘you are to be perfect,’ if it is impossible for us to be perfect?” By this, my cousin was arguing that perfection is possible. He admitted that while it is true that most of us will not achieve perfection, this does not mean that it is impossible.
Then he went further. If perfection is not possible, then why even bother? Why pursue spiritual growth if you will never fully get to the peak? That would be like pursuing the impossible?
I understand where he is coming from. Many Christians inculcate this idea, whether consciously or subconsciously. It somehow shows up in our worldview, in our view of God, and in our pursuit of the Christian faith and righteous living. It has also led many to put immense pressure on themselves in pursuit of the perfect Christian life, and others remain in a state of guilt and disappointment when they find that they fall short, no matter how hard they try. This idea, and in fact, the passage I referenced, has also been weaponized by some legalistic Christians to pass judgment on others.
Yet, on the other side of the equation, others have felt let down by the idea that they will never ascend to that perfect state, so they remove the standard from their lives altogether. The perspective quietly guiding their actions is that it is futile to pursue something that will inevitably remain beyond their reach.
This is when some of us co-opt the redemption story and the Holy Spirit to somehow give us the qualification and validation we seek. While on the surface, this seems pious and even humble. But in truth, we are actually just trying to use a roundabout way to give ourselves the same level of satisfaction of being perfect or good enough.
Let me give you one instance of this.
We had a speaker coming to teach in a small Bible study group I was part of. The speaker started by telling us to make specific declarations like “I am needy;” “I am selfish;” “I am not good enough,” and several others, all equally self-deprecating and non-flattering.
One person in my class spoke and articulated what many others were probably feeling. She said she could not make the declaration, “I am not good enough,” because it was not something she wanted to affirm to herself. Again, I understand where she was coming from.
Later on, another person said, “By myself, I am not good enough, but I am good enough through the Holy Spirit.”
On the surface, this sounds pious and true. However, when you look more closely, you begin to see something else at work. The issue is not a recognition of the Holy Spirit’s role or power. The issue is resistance to accepting the idea of not being good enough.
That idea is deeply offensive to us. So rather than receiving it, we instinctively reach for a way to reinterpret it—something that allows us to preserve a sense of adequacy. In this case, the Holy Spirit becomes that mechanism. Not as the source of transformation, but as a means of avoiding a reality we do not want to accept.
I am using specific instances to illustrate a predisposition that every human carries—pride. And when I say pride, I am not talking about it in the way we typically use it to describe certain people—someone who appears arrogant or pompous in contrast to someone who seems more down-to-earth. Those are real expressions, but that is not what I mean here. I am speaking of a fundamental human condition that lives in us all.
Let’s examine the inception of pride in human history. What was the very first instance of it?
When we trace this, we find that pride occurred right before the first sinful act was committed, you know, the one that tainted us all for life. In Genesis 3, while the first humans were still in paradise, Satan made them a proposition that would mean a complete disobedience of God’s command (Genesis 3:1–7). God had commanded them not to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17b). Why was it easy for them to disregard God’s command?
Well, here was their reality at the time. They were God’s image-bearers. To be made in God’s image meant they were to live as his representatives, dependent on his wisdom and knowledge. Also, all of their activities on earth must be tied to God’s will and plan for his creation. That means they could never be their own persons. Their entire existence must be tethered to God’s existence.
Here, the devil’s proposition was essentially that eating from this tree would give the ability to know everything that God knows. The unspoken promise in that proposition was that they wouldn’t have to depend on God to determine what is good and what is bad. They would have the ability to determine that for themselves. This also means that they don’t have to pursue God’s agenda; they could choose their own. In essence, they can be their own gods.
Why remain a representation of God when you can actually be God himself?
This is what made the proposition very appealing to them.
And this was the first instance of pride in human history—elevating yourself above who you truly are.
We also find in this narrative that pride was the precursor of the very first instance of human disobedience or rebellion against God. That was the inception of sin in our human history. That sin, along with pride, became deeply ingrained in our being. It shows up in many different ways.
If you have ever heard the concept of the seven deadly sins—pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth—Christian teaching labels these as the seven deadly sins because every other expression of sin somehow derives from one of these seven instances of sin. So, they are called the deadly sins because they are precursor to other acts of sin.
However, when listing the seven deadly sins, pride is often listed first. Its position in the list is not by accident; it is because it is the deadliest of the deadly sins. That means it is the precursor of the other six deadly sins.
The fact that we each commit acts of sin means that pride lives in us all.
This is why Scripture says repeatedly that God is opposed to the proud (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Proverbs 3:34). Pride is an opposition to God.
Guess what sin is?
You guessed it, opposition to God.
It is a state or act contrary to that which God’s glory demands.
So, now let’s return to that original passage I started with. If we are not to understand this passage as requiring us to live perfect lives, then how should we understand it?
That is the question we must now answer. Because if we misunderstand what Jesus means here, we will either turn the Christian life into a burden we were never meant to carry, or we will lower the standard altogether and abandon the very thing God is trying to produce in us.
So in our next discussion, I want us to slow down and carefully examine what Jesus actually meant when he said, “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Thank you for joining me today.
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