Matthew 5:43-48
Be Perfect as God is Perfect
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Ephesians 2:1-10
Saved by Grace through Faith
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are saved only by God's Gift of Grace...Jesus calls on us to be perfect like, who God is Perfect, but we cannot be perfect as hard as we try...We need help and a Savior to get us to be a more Perfect human...Because we are human, we are flawed...Flawed with sin and a sinful nature...We are thus broken in sin, when compared to Jesus...Only being reborn through God's Grace and the help of a Savior can we be more like His Son...For it is by grace that we are saved, and through our faith in the Father and Son—and this is not from us, but this is the gift of God...So we cannot be saved by our works, so that no one can boast...For we are God’s handiwork, created in Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do...
Priest and author Brennan Manning wrote, “Getting honest with ourselves does not make us unacceptable to God...It does not distance us from God, but draws us to Him—as nothing else can—and opens us anew to the flow of grace...While Jesus calls each of us to a more perfect life, we cannot achieve it on our own...To be alive is to be broken; to be broken is to stand in need of grace...It is only through grace that any of us could dare to hope that we could become more like Christ.”...