James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 5:48 - 5:48

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 5:48 - 5:48


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

MORAL PERFECTION

‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’

Mat_5:48

If we are apt to grow self-complacent, to thank God we are not as other men are, but far better, it arises from the low standards we set before us. Now our Lord lifts up our thoughts far above all the standards of earth. ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ Many of us simply pass over and ignore the words as impracticable and impossible. ‘Perfect!’ we say, ‘perfect as God is perfect! Impossible. Imperfection marks everything, and must mark everything here below; it is Quixotic to expect we can attain that which is plainly above our reach.’ And so we quietly ignore the words altogether, and to the vast majority they are a dead letter. Yet spoken by our Lord they must have a real and important meaning. In worldly things, in arts and sciences, a high standard is of great importance. And in the spiritual life our Lord gives us what alone will make our life high and noble and pure; He gives us a high standard, the highest of all standards, the Almighty Father Himself.

I. The true standard.—Christ bids us look above and see the real and the true.

(a) The perfect sanctity, the intense purity of God: dwelling in light unapproachable. For that all-holy Presence we have to prepare ourselves.

(b) His perfect knowledge. More and more then we must be ever seeking after truth.

(c) The perfect harmony and unity of the Divine perfections. We have so many ‘ragged ends’; many noble qualities, many false, unreal ones; much of the glitter and the flashiness which is only untrue and unreal.

II. God’s image.—We need more and more to gaze on God, to look up into His Divine face. The glory of the sun is reflected in the water; so will the light of God be more and more reflected in the soul which is upturned to Him. His image, as it were, will be photographed there. And remember to this end two most important considerations—

(a) God Himself will do the work. We lay open our hearts; He enters; He works.

(b) The great need of care in small matters. Perfection consists in little things. It is just this which our Lord is especially pressing here. The very word is ‘complete,’ aiming at each virtue in its fulness, not at one to the neglect of the others.

III. The immense power of prayer in this matter.—Alas! we have so little faith in its efficacy. We pray, and there the matter ends; for the most part we have not the faith to expect and look for the answer. Pray for the particular graces which you need to perfect you in holiness, and then expect the answer to come. For He gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, and surely with Him we have all. More and more our life will be perfected here, until at last we come by His Almighty power ‘unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.’

The Rev. W. A. Brameld.