Matthew 5:48 (NIV) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Here we see the conclusion to the true interpretation of the law: be perfect. Matthew 5:48 (NKJ) “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
If a man could live the way Jesus has told us to in this chapter, he would truly be perfect.
He would never hate, slander or speak evil of another person.
He would never lust in his heart or mind, and not covet anything.
He would never make a false oath, and always be completely truthful.
He would let God defend his personal rights, and not take it upon himself to defend those rights.
He would always love his neighbors as well as his enemies.
If a man could keep just what Jesus said here, he would truly have a righteousness greater than the scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20), the very thing we must have to enter into God’s Kingdom. But there is only one man who has lived like this: Jesus Christ. What about the rest of us?