Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48
We live in a society that is obsessed with comparisons. I want to know how my weight compares to that of others who are my same age and height. I want my child to be at the head of his class. I want to make sure that my yard is as green as my neighbor’s and that the car I drive is at least as new as his. I want to see how my retirement plan compares to the average for people in my tax bracket.
What’s wrong with this way of thinking? The problem is that by constantly comparing ourselves to others we often fail to see what the goal is (or ought to be). I shouldn’t care about my weight because I want to fit in; I should care about it because I want to be a good steward of the body God has given me. If I have this as my goal, I won’t become obsessed with the number on the bathroom scale; in fact, I might not even keep a scale on my bathroom floor! If my concern for my child is that he is getting the education that will benefit him in life, I won’t worry as much about what his scores are as I will about what he is learning and how much he is applying himself to that end. If a green lawn is a goal of stewardship, it is a worthy one, but if it is a goal of vanity, it can become sinful.
The world hasn’t changed much in the past two millennia. In first-century Palestine very few ever rose above the social expectations of the day. The benchmark for morality was set by the scribes and Pharisees, whose standards for charity, prayer, fasting, and other religious rituals seemed unsurpassable. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shines heavenly light on this elite class and exposes the hypocrisy that motivated their pseudo-pious practices. Jesus urges His listeners to aspire to a higher standard of righteousness (Matthew 5:20). He tells them to be sound not only in their actions, but even in their thoughts. He exhorts them to do more than what is demanded, even by their enemies. In fact, He even goes so far as to command them to love their enemies. If we only love those who love us, we don’t even win in the ill-conceived comparison game, for even the least moral of men love their friends (Matthew 5:46–47). But who would even think of loving their enemies? God would, and if He truly is our Father, shouldn’t He be the one to whom we look for our standards?
As radical as it seems to make God’s perfect love our goal, it isn’t new. God told Israel, “I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore by holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). If our Father loves His enemies, that must be what a holy being does, and this should be my goal. If my Father has no ulterior motives for doing good things, that must be what a holy being does, and I need to check my own motives when I do some charitable deed. Instead of measuring myself against someone else’s righteousness, I need to look to God as my standard and seek His righteousness instead (Matthew 6:33). When I do this, I might fall short of my brother’s expectations since I am doing my works in secret when possible, but that’s okay. That’s because it is no longer my goal to meet someone else’s expectations. My new goal to love God and to love all those who are created in His image (see Galatians 1:10–20).
Paul says that they are unwise who compare themselves to their peers (2 Corinthians 10:12). Instead of comparing my actions to those of my brother, I need to compare my heart to God’s, and when I do, I will always find room for improvement.