On Matt 5:48 (cf. Lev 19:18 and related texts):
Rather than hatred of one’s enemies, Jesus tells his hearers to “pray
for those who persecute you.” But his instruction is not confined to moments of
crisis; he also critiques those who greet only their “brothers” (Matt. 5:47).
In all moments of life, his disciples ought to love those hostile to them. And
he grounds his instruction in the divine qualities of the heavenly Father, so
whose behavior has hearers are to conform, “for [οτι] he causes his sun to rise on the evil
and the good” (Matt. 5:45).
Jesus then compares the typical behavior (loving only those who love
you) not with what the Law requires but with the behavior of tax collectors and
gentiles (Matt. 5:46-47). Following Jesus’s interpretation on this matter,
then, elevates a disciple not above what the Law teaches but above the
practices of those widely considered “sinners.” Moreover, his question “What
more [περισσον] are you doing
[than gentiles and tax collectors]?” (5:47) echoes his opening instruction that
one’s righteousness must “exceed” (περισσευση) that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20). Consequently, living
according to the norms Jesus opposes, one might live like a gentile or a tax
collector at worst, or the scribes and Pharisees at best, but one would not
thereby become like the heavenly Father, suggesting that Jesus’s instruction
opposes not the Law but a practice of it that he regards as deficient for
entering the kingdom. But in keeping Jesus’s interpretation of the Law, one
imitates God and thereby exudes the abundant righteousness requisite to enter
the kingdom.
Jesus concludes this section by saying, “Therefore you shall be
perfect [τελειος], as your
heavenly Father is perfect [τελειοι]” (Matt. 5:48). Jesus is not stating that “sinless perfection” is
necessary for salvation. In this body of teaching (Matt. 5-7), he assumes that
interpersonal conflicts will persist (5:23-26), stumbling will occur (5:29-30),
and ongoing forgiveness (divine and human) will be necessary (6:12, 14-15; cp.
18:15-35). His command to be “perfect” likely intends to promote complete conformity
to the divine character in treating the just and the wicked with similar
benefits. Even Philo, who plausibly has a more optimistic view of human
capacity than Jesus, states that “there is no one born, however perfect [τελειος] he may be, who can wholly avoid the
commission of sin” (Spec. Laws 1.252). Consequently, Jesus’s summons to “perfection”
does not establish an impossibly high standard to make one realize the need for
grace—a problem Paul’s letters supposedly answer. He teaches, rather, that
humans should pursue the complete character of God, who loves even the unrighteous,
and in so doing grow into the completeness basic to God. (Paul T. Sloan, Jesus
and the Law of Moses: The Gospels and the Restoration of Israel Within the
First-Century Judaism [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2025], 103-4, emphasis in bold added)
