Be......perfect? Surely, there must be a mistake in the translation. New International Version – Perfect. English Standard Version – Perfect. The Passion Translation – Perfect. New King James – Perfect. New LivingTranslation – Perfect. This verse is tucked into the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where He ups the ante on all that the Law had required and calls us to an even higher way of living. The temptation is to reduce His words to merely a behavioral guideline, a list of unreasonable demands & measures that we are bound to fall short of. When we do that, we’ve missed the point entirely. The Sermon on the Mount is a portrait of Jesus and how He lived. Jesus' call to perfection isn’t meant to be a daunting task for us. It's actually an invitation to experience His life within our own.
