Why would Jesus tell the religious leaders in Mathew 5:48, “to be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect?” In this chapter Jesus is comparing the letter of the law with the spirit of the law. In verse 43-44 Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus is showing the Father’s heart towards souls. Jesus said in the next verse, “the Father causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good.” The Father’s heart is that none perish.
The key to understanding this portion of scripture is in the Greek word translated love. Jesus is not saying to love your enemies with your love (phileo), but love your enemies with God’s love (agape). Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:17, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love.” Again the Greek is agape, not phileo.
The missing ingredient in all our lives is God’s love. Paul wrote in Romans 5:5 that, “God is pouring His love into our hearts.” The first century church began to experience the power of God’s love, the same love Jesus demonstrated throughout His life. John wrote in 1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love [agape] that God hath to us. God is love [agape]; and he that dwells in love [agape] dwells in God, and God in him.” This is how we are going to have the power to live perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. This is how we will be able to agape our enemies.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:5 “love [agape] doesn’t take into account the wrongs suffered.” God’s love is going to protect your heart at all times enabling you to live for God in any situation. We are on the threshold of the greatest out pouring of God’s love this world has ever seen.
This love is so powerful that is will affect your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. This love will make you whole, body, soul, and spirit. This love will cause the world to know that we are Jesus’s disciples, John 13:35. This love will produce full maturity in your life, and enable you to fulfill the two greatest commandments, “agape the Lord your God in all your heart and in all your soul and in all your mind, and agape your neighbor as yourself.”
You are being called into an intimate love relationship with God Himself on His level. It is the whole purpose for your existence.
Mere words even in the Greek language cannot begin to convey the truth of this statement made by Jesus. Words can only convey the briefest of meanings to the human mind concerning the spirit realm. To begin to understand the concept of this statement the flesh has to be taken out of the equation. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Our flesh is only a tent that houses the soul and spirit of man. When Jesus claims oneness with His Father it is his soul and spirit that are fused with His Father.
Jesus knew no sin and therefore was the firstborn of many brethren to experience the Father’s eternal purpose for man, Romans 8:29. What Jesus is, is what we were created to be. When Adam fell he died to the life Jesus lived. Paul wrote in Rom 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Our sin separated us from the spirit realm and a life with the Father himself. This is not the Father’s heart that we be separated from Him. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” This is the Father’s heart for us.
There is a great move coming which will result in us experiencing the same reality Jesus experience with the Father. The prayer Jesus prayed in John 17:20-23, has yet to be answered. It is the Father’s heart that we be one just as Jesus and the Father are one. We are about to enter into an experiential reality of the spirit realm that will answer all your questions and satisfy all the desires of your heart. This is the abundant life Jesus spoke of giving in John 10:10.
One of the most profound scriptures in the Bible is written by the apostle Paul in Rom 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The awful part of this verse is not that we have all sinned, but that we have fallen short of the glory. The fact that this statement is even in the Bible tells me that we are not living the life we were created to live. We are living a life devoid of the glory of God.
The Greek word translated "short" means: last, To be last, Posterior in place or time. In the NT, it is used figuratively of dignity, condition, strength, and the like, to be behind, inferior, to lack. This has been the condition of the human race since the time Adam fell. The result of this condition is that we are full of self and devoid of God.
Jesus lived a life that was full of God and devoid of self. Jesus lived a life of not my will but thy will be done. Jesus lived a life of dignity, strength, a life of no lack for anything. In other words He lived the abundant life He spoke about in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Jesus knew no sin and therefore never fell short of the glory of God. In Luke 2:40, it is said of Jesus, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.”
In Job 38:36, “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts, or who hath given understanding to the heart?” The answer is only God can do this.
One of the end results of Christ life is found in Col 2:3, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” This is a direct result of having the glory of God.
Another result in Christ's life of no sin and all glory is found in Mark 4:37-41, “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awaken him, and said unto him, ‘Master, do you not care that we perish?’ And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, ‘Peace, be still,’ and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, ‘Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?' And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, 'What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'” This is another result of us falling short of the glory of God. No faith for anything. It didn't even enter the disciple’s minds that they could do anything but fear for their lives.
Jesus didn't lose the dominion God gave to man. Gen 1:26 states, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” Adam gave up the dominion when He fell. Luke 4:5-6, “And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.'” Adam lost the glory, the dominion, the love, and his pure heart that kept him in relationship with God.
Another result in Christ's life of no sin and all glory is found in Mark 9:2-3, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter, and James, and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves: and He was transfigured before them. And His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.”
This is the glory of God manifesting out of His Son. The reason this scripture is in the word is because God wants man to understand that He wants man to have His Glory. We will experience a spiritual life full of the glory of God.
In John 14:8-10, “Philip said to him, ‘Lord, shew us the Father, and it is enough for us.' Jesus said unto him, ‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; and how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father abiding in Me, does His works.'”
In Col 1:19, Paul wrote, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” This is how we will please the Father, when all His fullness is dwelling in us.
In Eph 3:19, “And to know the love [agape] of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that ye might be filled unto all the fullness of God.”
The apostle Paul did not write this verse for no reason, and God himself didn't protect His word from being destroyed by the devil for 1,900 years, just so we can say, "this can't be true." Paul understood the revelation that just like His Son, God wants to dwell in us the same way. In fact Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, Jn 14:6, and Jesus is the firstborn of many brethren, Ro 8:29. I have always maintained that you can't be the firstborn of something if there is nothing like you that follows.
Jesus prayed in John 17:22 “And the glory which you have given me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.” God sent His Son to take away our sins so we could be reconciled unto God. God wants us to have His glory, He wants us to have everything His Son has. He wants a relationship with us so we can experience Him on His level now and forever.
Step 1: Salvation. Our sins where taken care of when Jesus became the living sacrifice. What Jesus did is open the door to fellowship with God.
Step 2: Infilling of God’s Spirit. It has always been the heart of God to dwell in His creation. Jesus took away the sin that prevented God from dwelling in His people.
Step 3: Experiencing the love of God until we come into the likeness of God. God is love and God wants His love to become ours until we become like Him.
All three steps are done for us though the Spirit. What we become will be a product of the Spirit not of ourselves. Our lives will be a direct result of the influence of Christ’s agape upon our hearts.
The first century church experienced the spiritual fulfillment of the first two feast that Israel celebrated thoughout their history. Jesus became the Passover Lamb that took away the sin of the world, John 1:29. Fifty days later the Feast of Pentecost was fulfilled, Acts 2:1-4. God began to fill His people with His Spirit. Peter stood up and preached to the crowd that gathered because of the noise, and said, “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” Acts 2 14-21. Now because our sins are forgiven God can fill His people with His Spirit.
God is love, and He wants to have a relationship with us on His level, that’s what the first and great commandment is all about. We are to agape the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind, Matthew 22:37-38. This reality will never happen if our love is the only thing involved. It will take God’s love to produce this relationship.
Jesus laid out the blueprint for this reality to take place in our lives. In John 15:9, Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue in my love.” All three words translated “love” in English, are "agape" in the Greek, in verb and noun form. Jesus is the mediator between God and man, 1 Timothy 2:5. Jesus is the head of the church and wants to bring God’s love to men below.
The end result of this relationship will be the fulfillment of the two greatest commandments upon which all the law and the prophets depend. We are facing the greatest move of God this world has ever seen. This relationship will produce in us what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:13, "we will all come to the unity of the faith, and the full knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." What a glorious future we about to step into to.
Jesus always had a pure heart and saw God in a way that we as fallen man have yet to experience. Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Jesus also said in John 14:30, “the prince of this world cometh, and has nothing in me.” The word for pure in Matthew 5:8 means clean, pure, unsoiled or unalloyed. Jesus said there is nothing of the prince of this world in me. His heart was pure and remained pure for all His life on earth. This is why Jesus lived a life in the Father and the Father in Him. It is a pure heart that will generate a relationship with God that will equal the life Christ lived.
Jesus being born of a virgin lived a life outside the blood lineage of Adam. His Father is God, who knew no sin and therefore Jesus’s life was influenced by purity, and love, and glory. We who were born into the blood lineage of Adam know experientially very little to nothing about this life Jesus lived. Jesus was not subject to the inherent weakness of man. Jesus was on the same plain as the first Adam who also had a pure heart before the fall.
After the fall the heart is described in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? The Hebrew grammar for “wicked” is a verbal adjective in the passive voice indicating continued simple action. It is often used of a state that has come into existence and continues to exist. The word “wicked” itself is a verb meaning, to be sick, incurable, in poor health. It describes a weakened condition that can lead to death. In its most potent theological usage, it describes the incurably wicked desperately sick condition of the human heart that only God knows. Our heart condition is a direct result of partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is nothing in ourselves or by ourselves that we can do to reverse this condition. This is why we needed a savior.
In Psalms 51:10, David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” The Hebrew word of create has the connotation that this process can only be done by God. Only God can perform the heart surgery we need to create a pure heart in our lives. That's why God will get all the glory for your life and mine.
A pure heart will enable you to become one with the creator who is pure. Jesus prayed in John 17:23, “I in them and You in Me that they be made perfect in one, and that the world will know that You sent Me, and loved them as You loved Me.”
The time for God to do this miracle in our lives is upon us. In the fulfillment of the last great feast the Feast of Tabernacles, we will see the church become all glorious, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, holy and blameless, Ephesians 5:27.
In Revelation 2:4 Jesus says, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” The church of Ephesus is the first of seven churches Jesus addresses. This church with its glowing letter written by the apostle Paul praising them for their faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, has fallen from their first love. In both places the word for love is agape. This is not man’s love but the love that comes from Jesus himself, John 15:9.
Jesus said you have left your first love. The word “first” in the Greek means the love first demonstrated. This love was from God coming through Jesus as the head of the church, being poured into their hearts, Romans 5:5.
What the church of Ephesus did was send Jesus away. He was no longer able to love His church. By the time you read about the church of Laodicea the church has reached lukewarm status and Jesus is standing outside the door politely knocking to gain entrance.
Well, here we are 1900 years later and Jesus is still standing outside the door of the church and politely knocking to gain entrance. Jesus wants to love His church. Jesus said in John 15:5, "that apart from Him we can do nothing." Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:2 that if he did not have love (agape) he was nothing. We need Jesus to begin loving the church again. We are commanded by Jesus in John 15:9 to abide in His love (agape).
The reason for all of this is so we will come into full maturity and be able to live this life the way we are supposed to. Only by being loved by Jesus will we be able to fulfill the greatest commandment. Only through Jesus' love will we become the church Paul wrote about in Ephesians 5:27, Jesus wants to present to Himself a glorious church not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. This will never happen without Jesus' love directly involved in our lives. I have 1900 years of history backing up this point. There has never been a people or church that has come close to the way Jesus lived, and without His love, there never will be.
One of the most profound scriptures in the Bible is written by the apostle Paul in Romans 3:23, "For all men have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." The awful part of this verse is not that we have sinned, but that our sin cost us the glory of our God. Imagine a life of living in the glory, of never knowing sin, of always having God's presence. Well, that is God's plan for man and so far one man has fulfilled His plan, the Son of God, Jesus.
Jesus is the one man who never knew sin though He was tempted on all points like as we, yet He was without sin. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Cor 5:21, "That the Father made Him sin who knew no sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." This is the plan of God for you. He wants you, and went to this degree to give you opportunity to experience the same relationship with Him that His Son has.
Jesus prayed in John 17:21, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: That the world may believe that thou hast sent me." When the world sees you and I one with the Father and Jesus they will see a reality that can only be produced through the shed blood of Jesus. What the world is going to see is a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, Eph 5:27.
Jesus was asked a question in John 6:28, "What shall we do to do the works of God?" Jesus' answer was, "to believe on Him whom God has sent." It will be by faith that we enter into the plan of God for man. There is nothing to earn, you are already qualified for this relationship because your only justification is the blood of the lamb. God has already provided everything you need to experience this life with Him.
Jesus was asked in Mt. 22:36, which is the great commandment and He responded with "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two comandments hang all the law and the prophets." In both places where the Greek word is translated love, the Greek is "agape." The revelation is that agape is God's love not your love. In order to love God the way He needs you to love Him, He must be intimately involved in your life just like He is in His Son's life.
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:5, "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." The first century church was experiencing the agape of God being poured out into their hearts. This is the plan of God for man. This is why God gave His only begotten Son, so through the shed blood, God could reconcile man back to Himself, so He could continue with man where He left off with the first Adam. God's plan for you is to draw you into an intimate relationship with Him until you are able to agape Him on His level.
In 1 John 4:7-8, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" KJV. The words translated love in verse 7&8 in the Greek are agape both in the noun and verb form. What John is saying is that it takes God's love to enter into an experiential relationship with Him. We know about God through His word, but through His love we will come to experientially know Him. As we grow in His love we will be able to fulfill the two greatest commandments.
By way of explantion about this blog. Paul wrote in Eph 3:17 that we are to be rooted and grounded in God's love. I made a decision a number of years ago, that if the Bible is telling me that my life is to be rooted and grounded in agape, then so should my theology. Since that decision, I have been able to understand the New Testament scriptures with a new light.
The first century church was in a move of God's love. Paul wrote in Romans 5:5, that God was pouring His love into their hearts. John wrote in 1 John 4:16, "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." The Geek word translated love is agape.
The Greek word agape is used in the New Testament over 300 times in noun, verb and adjective form. This is more times than New Testament scriptures on Salvation, Water Baptism, the scriptures about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and faith and grace.
Agape is a doctrine and can be taught as any other doctrine in the New Testament. What places agape as the most important doctrine is it's usage in Mt 22:36-40. Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment, and the answer is, to love [agape] God and love [agape] your neighbor. Jesus concludes with, "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In Mark's account he records Jesus as saying "there is none other commandment greater than these."
In loving God, it is not our love that is the primary object of fulfilling the two greatest commandments. What Jesus is saying is that it takes the spirit of God interfacing with you to fulfill these commandments. Paul wrote in Gal 6:22 that agape is the fruit of the spirit. We can not fulfill these commandments in the natural, just like we can not be saved by works. Just as salvation is by grace, so is this love relationship. This love relationship will be a fruit of the spirit, not of ourselves. That's why God is going to get all the glory.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” The Greek word “pure” means: Clean, pure, clear, in natural sense unsoiled, unalloyed. This is a heart with no admixture of sin. Jesus knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), so His heart was always pure, and He lived in a face to face relationship with His Father.
If you have been a Christian for any length of time you have discovered that living the life the Bible is calling us to, is not working. You probably can relate to the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 7:21, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Even though our sins are forgiven we are still hindered from living Godly.
Jesus, in Mark 7:18-23 is explaining to His disciples what He meant by the parable He spoke of in verse 15, “Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated? That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” Our hearts have been corrupted by sin, and it’s the enemy of our souls that is keeping us from doing that which is good. The only way we can acquire a pure heart is through the Spirit of God.
In Dueteronomy 30:6, “Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” This is how we are going to get a pure heart. God himself is going to cut away the enemy and all his hurts so that you can love God and live. This is the abundant life Jesus spoke about in John 10:10.
In 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." God is always looking at the heart and He knows what the enemy has done to us and how to change our hearts so we can love Him and live.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:29, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” This promise has yet to be fulfilled. The Greek word “conformed” means to take on the exact inward likeness of His Son. We are going to live in God with a pure heart, just like His Son.
Who we are and what we are in not known. We have missed the glory and the love and the power and the wisdom of God, for our lives. Our sin has produced an altered lifestyle.
In Luke 2:40 It is said of Jesus that the child grew strong in spirit and was full of wisdom. This is a picture of Jesus when He was twelve years old.
Because He knew no sin, Jesus had devoleped beyond His years. His heart was pure and He was being enfluanced by His face to face relationship with His Father.
Our true self is not known and has not developed because the devil has stunted our growth. The devil has robbed us from the only thing that will produce God likeness. God’s love, agape, is the missing ingredient that will enable us to live this life the way it was meant to be.
Only through God’s direct involvement in our lives can we develop into the person we were meant to be. Jesus lived the life every man should have lived. A life influenced by His Father’s love. He let God love Him until He became like Him. To be like God is the ultimate life.
Jesus was tempted on all points yet without sin. Agape, will enable the believer to control both fleshly desires and emotions. Agape enables the believer to be in control of his or her life at all times. This is how we will live a life without sin.
Paul wrote in Eph 4:13 - "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" - KJV
This is the condition God’s love will produce in the heart of the believer. The word knowledge in the Greek means, to have full experiential knowledge. Through this relationship with the Son of God we will develop into a perfect man, we will come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This condition will be a fruit of the spirit not of ourselves.
What we become in agape will produce the real self.