The Saints God Is Forming

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

The genius of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount is that he does not call men to improvement, but to perfection. The world is content with a high standard of morality, but Jesus demands the ultimate standard. This standard is none other than the perfection of the heavenly Father himself.

If this is remarkable, it is also mystifying. Even if God is perfect, why is it that our Lord is so concerned with our internal purity? Is it not enough that we lead generally moral lives? If our actions never harm anyone else, why does it matter to God what inner feelings we hold? Why does Christ denounce rage, lust, and even the (apparently harmless) taking of oaths, when the world is content that we each ‘mind our own business’? Why such an emphasis on the unseen, when everyone else counts us ‘good citizens’ if we do not actually plunge the knife or seduce our neighbor’s wife?

The answer is found in our obligation, as sons, to demonstrate the character of our heavenly Father. For as the heavenly Father is a pure Being, completely unstained by any sin, so he also intends for his offspring to be pure – to be actually pure through-and-through, not merely pure in outward appearances. He intends for their character to be one of righteousness, which is a different matter from being merely innocent of crimes.

The saints that God is forming, then, are holy, not as an action, but as a way of life. They are not merely good at keeping the evil under control. They are not hypocrites, acting one thing but thinking another. They are individuals who are being purified to the core of their beings. God is fitting them for heaven, and he is molding their character to be like his own.