Perfect like father...

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Mt 5:48

Reading
Mt 5:43-48

Perfect means to become as good as it is possible says online dictionary in a google search for the word. Jesus wants us to be perfect like our heavenly father. Now, do we understand this state of being perfect, we always kind of play with words like this, for example: nobody is perfect, I am nobody or Practice makes someone perfect, nobody is perfect, so why practice and so on. Being street-wise we know perfection is not possible. But, biblical understanding for perfect is quite different. Bible starts with perfect love (Jn 4:18), what is this perfect love, love your neighbor as yourself (Mk 12:31) and it goes on to add another ingredient for this perfect formula, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mt 5:44).

Jean Paul-Sartre called Ernesto Che Guevara as "complete human being"¹, but most people would disagree. However, Che Guevara had worked for his people and their liberation. For him alleviation of hunger was of prime importance, "hunger is a violent condition forced upon the hungry, and he finds violence an unavoidable method to counter that condition." Guevara from a philosophers words was a complete human being but was not perfect, but his condition of becoming perfect is debatable and his work cannot termed viewed in a reductionist mode.

But, Jesus Christ calls us not to love our own but to love our enemies, which is a condition of becoming perfect, which reflects our Heavenly Father's image.

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^{1 Manash Bhattacharjee, "Gandhi and the guerilla," The Hindu, February 23, 2013, Op-Ed.}