Matthew 5:48

Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

No one can say that Christ did not set a high standard for man to follow! To be perfect as God is perfect, what a challenge this is! At the outset, every candid student of the Holy Scriptures should admit and understand that there is not the slightest possibility of his ever graduating from this school, "Magna cum Laude"! Nobody, but nobody is ever going to be perfect; and yet, it is the genius of the Christian religion that perfection is required of its adherents. A contradiction? No, only a paradox. The goal or ideal is necessary that man may continually know that he is unworthy of salvation, that he can never in a million years merit it, and that any real perfection he might eventually attain must be the free gift of Christ.

Illustration: In a measure of music, in ordinary 4/4 or quadruple time, a single half-note fills the measure half-full; a dot after that note brings it to 3/4 full, another dot 7/8 full, another to 15/16 full, another to 31/32 full, and so on and on. If one added a million dots, the measure would never be full, for each dot would add only half the value of the preceding dot. In a manner of speaking, this is the way it is with perfection. One may fill the measure half-full by obeying the gospel and by giving up all forms of vicious conduct; but there will always be some improvement to make; and a Christian can keep on and on improving until the end of a long life without ever attaining absolute perfection.

An apostle is our authority for saying that no man is above sin, actually. John said,

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8,9).

Nevertheless, how boldly Christ flung down the challenge! PERFECTION, Sir, that's what is required. Even if one were found so foolish as to believe he had attained it, his blindness to any sin would constitute the biggest sin of all. This verse, as much as any other in the Bible, throws man upon his knees and bids him trust in Christ alone for eternal life.