If you search "perfection" on dictionary.com, it will define it as, the highest proficiency, skill, or excellence, as in some art. Typically, when we think of Christ, we think of him as the only perfect being who has walked this earth. While we take Him to be our perfect example, He excluded Himself as being perfect during his early earthly ministry.
In Matthew 5:48, it says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" Notice that He immediately referred to Heavenly Father as the only perfect being.
You may be wondering, "But Jesus never sinned! How can He not be perfect as well?"
Jesus had a different definition of being perfect. To be perfect, you had to be complete. Think of it as a download. You start at 0% and climb to 100%. Until you are at that 100%, your "mission" is not complete and it will fail. Often times, during our download, we have hiccups, bugs, buffers, etc. that make hinder us from completing our task. However, Jesus did not have all these blemishes, instead He had the task of completing the Atonement before he could become 100% complete. There was still more for Him to accomplish, so He wasn't considered perfect. Luckily for us, Jesus gave us steps to erase our imperfections...THE BEATITUDES!!!
Seriously though. If you look at it, the beatitudes could be an outline for us to follow and become perfect like him. It's not just each group of people receiving blessings, it's Him wanting us to receive all the blessings by gaining each attribute! So cool.
Another thing we talked about was in Matthew 5:29-30, they say, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast in from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." "And if they right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of they members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
Reading these, I first thought, "Oh, that would be really painful to pluck out your eye or cut off your hand. Better not offend God if it will be worst than that! Yikes."
But there is so much more to learn! The particular selection of the eye and the hand is actually quit interesting. Think about it.
The eye is a major source for input in your life. The sight your eye gives you, puts in a large portion of knowledge into your brain. Your eyes help create the world around you. What is the counsel here? If whatever you are inputting into your life offends God, PLUCK IT OUT! There is no other way. God is telling us it is much easier to be half blind and get to heaven than have full vision also being swallowed in sin.
The hand is a major output for your life. You use your hands to effect the world around you. Your hands were given to you to do good in the world. What is the counsel here? If we are using our hands to offend God, CUT IT OFF! This could mean harming others, denying the gospel, or even being idle in our time. We were placed on this earth to do good with our time. If we are so caught up in playing games, watching shows, etc... in other words doing NOTHING, how offended will God be when we come back to heaven so much wasted potential? It would have been better to fully cut off whatever wasted output we have than lose the potential bonds/love we could have experienced otherwise.
The virtual addictions have to stop (this also includes pornography). I cannot even begin to describe how much wasted time goes online. Sometimes, the only way to get rid of the addiction, is to do exactly what Jesus says, and pluck/cut it out of our life.
"But not having a smart phone/tablet/laptop is super inconvenient! We need these things today!"
...yeah well so would be losing an eye or hand. This is what Jesus counsels us to do. I suggest we do it.
Don't forget to be awesome!
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