“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt 5:48
When you look at the Bible commentaries, there is very little disagreement about this passage.
Jesus is telling us that His expectations are that we become perfect – whole, entire, wanting nothing. The standard of “perfect” that we are to aspire to is the perfection of our Creator with whom is “no shadow, neither variableness of turning.”
So I submit for your thought a question in the context of this command – do the ends ever justify the means?
If perfect is our goal, can we ever justify a lie in order to increase the “greater good”?
Can we ever justify hate based on righting some past wrong?
Can we ever justify harming someone in order to help someone else?
Can we ever justify killing in order to preserve life?
Here’s a popular thought exercise that I’ve heard used to justify torture. Let’s suppose that someone has planted a very destructive device in a location where it could do maximum damage and you have that person in custody. Can you justify torturing them to get the information that might save lives?
I would turn that scenario around. Is there ever any situation where God is not present? And the corollary, is there any situation where God is powerless?
If not, then here is the tough question regarding perfection. If God is all-present, all-knowing, and all-powerful; how does man working to be perfect, respond to the “terrorist” situation I just described?
How would you respond?