Matthew 5:48 is the forty-eighth and final verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the final verse of the final antithesis, and it is a summary of Jesus' earlier teachings.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your

Father which is in heaven is perfect.

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

Therefore you shall be perfect, just

as your Father in heaven is perfect.

The formulation is this verse is known as the imitatio Die a similar verse appears at Luke 6:36 and may have originally been in Q. The verse might be modeled on Leviticus 19:2.

There is much debate about what exactly this verse means. Being as perfect as God seen by most as an impossibility. Some scholars believe that Jesus is hear setting a goal that is certain to be impossible, so that we will realize this and be humble. The pursuit of perfection is important, even if the attainment of it impossible.

An alternative view is that this is a limited form of perfection that is being asked. Fowler notes that elsewhere in the New Testament, it is stated that those who believe

A third view is to link the word perfect, or telios, to how it is used by the Greek philosophers. To them something was perfect if it fully be its intended function. Barclay argues that the previous verses made clear that man's function is to love, and anyone who does that absolutely can be considered perfect.

This command is somewhat different than the earlier one's in that it is in the future tense. This makes it seem like something of a promise as well as a command.

References

• Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew: Volume 1 Chapters 1-10. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1975.
• Fowler, Harold. The Gospel of Matthew: Volume One. Joplin: College Press, 1968
• Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to Matthew. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1992.