Sermon on the Mount - Part 4 — William MacDonald

May we turn in our Bibles tonight again to Romans, Chapter 5. We're going through the Sermon on the Mount. We've been learning that these are principles which apply to all who own the kingship of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, and we learned last night that they're principles that cannot be lived out in the energy of human flesh, but only as empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

Oh, pardon me. I think we'll get along much better if we make it Matthew, Chapter 5. We ended last night in verse 20. Matthew 5, 20. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus Contrasts External Religion With Inward Righteousness

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old times, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother Laca shall be in danger of the council, and whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.". Now, in connection with the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, we mentioned last night that this righteousness was completely an outward righteousness.

In other words, the Pharisees followed the letter of the law, and they tried not to do anything that you could be brought into court for, and that was as deep as their righteousness was. And that's why the Lord Jesus called them frightened sepulchers, a grave that was all daubed up with whitewash on the outside, but inside it was filled with dead men's bones.

What could be a more accurate description of people who dabbled only in external, who were interested only in an outward type of righteousness, but as far as their heart and the inward motives of their lives?

Well, they didn't pay any attention to them. And so the Lord Jesus proceeds to give some illustrations in these paragraphs that follow of a righteousness that is merely outward, and of the type of righteousness that is required of subjects of his kingdom.

And he reminds them that it said back in the law, thou shalt not kill. The law of Moses set forth this standard, and of course the Pharisees prided themselves that they had never murdered anybody. But the Lord Jesus shows that there was an inward, deeper spiritual meaning to the law, and that although you might never have murdered anyone with your hands or with a weapon, yet there is such a thing as murder of the soul, and you might have wished a person to be dead, and that was incipient murder.

It was beginning already in your heart and only needed to be full blown. And so he says that if anybody committed murder in the Old Testament, they were guilty. They were to be brought before the judgment.

Now, the judgment actually was what we would call a lower court. It was a lower court, and that's where cases of murder were tried in the Old Testament. But the Lord Jesus said, now in my kingdom, anyone who is angry with his brother lightly shall be brought before the judgment.

Now, what that really means is that the anger of the heart in the pure and holy eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ is equivalent to murder in the Old Testament. You know, if a man hates his brother, he's already committed murder as far as inward things are concerned.

I don't want to shock you by using this expression in a meeting of the church, but a very common expression in the world today is, damn you. That's exactly what it means. It means, I wish you were dead.

It means, I wish you were in perdition. Now, of course, the Pharisees could use language like that. They'd never shoot a man in cold blood, but they wouldn't mind using language like that. That's the very type of thing the Lord Jesus is speaking about here.

You know, the word of God is wonderful. The word of God is wonderful. God knows if you think about a thing long enough, you'll do it. And he knows that all of these things are bred within the heart of man and in the mind of man.

And so he comes and he gets to the very point here. I'm saying to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a card, that is lightly angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the counsel.

Now, that word Raca is a hard word to translate. It's a word that expresses contempt for another one. I suppose the closest we could get to it would be if you said to somebody else, stupid. That's Raca.

Stupid. And the Lord Jesus said, in my kingdom, that type of behavior towards your brother, that brings you before the Sanhedrin. Now, the Sanhedrin was the Supreme Court as far as the Jews were concerned.

The judgment was the lower court. The Sanhedrin was the Supreme Court. And that attitude of soul that would look upon a brother and call him stupid in the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ would be sufficient to bring a man before the Sanhedrin.

And he says, whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Now, this word thou fool is stronger than the word in the English language. When we think of a fool, sometimes we think of somebody with a dunce's cap on his head or something like that, but it's worse than that here.

It's worse than that here. This is a word expressing utter hatred, the hatred of the human heart for a fellow human being. And the Lord Jesus said that a man, a man whose life is characterized by that, he isn't even saved and he's in danger of the Gehenna of fire.

The real word here instead of hell is Gehenna. Gehenna means the Valley of Hinnom. You know, outside the city of Jerusalem, there was a valley called the Valley of Hinnom, and it was really the city dump.

And there was a fire that burnt there perpetually, and therefore it became a symbol of the perpetual fires of hell. And that's exactly what we have here in the word of God. Whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of the Gehenna of fire.

And once again I say, this isn't just an isolated incident where the word slips out of a person's mouth, but this describes an attitude of a man's heart. This is the type of feeling that he has toward another man, and it's a habitual thing.

It characterizes his life, that that man doesn't have divine grace. It's a sure proof he never came into living vital relationships with the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll never enjoy the blessings of Christ's millennial kingdom.

He's in danger of hell fire. And so the Lord says, you Pharisees, you come to me with your gifts and with your sacrifices and with your offerings, but just remember this, I'm not just interested in people that go through rituals.

Go and see what this word meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. And this is what he was always saying to the Pharisees. I wish you'd remember this, you Pharisees, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.

In other words, I'm just not interested in people coming up and piling my altars with the bodies of dead animals. I'm interested in men coming with offerings to God whose hearts are right before God. And so the Lord Jesus says here, therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and remember that your brother has ought against thee, you go first and make it right with your brother, and then come with the gift to the altar, and then I'll hear, and then I'll accept.

My, those are searching words, I'm saying. What does it mean? Well, dear friends, it means that we should not only keep short accounts with our God, but it means that we should keep short accounts with our brethren as well.

It means, for instance, that in a practical way that we would never come to the table of the Lord if we remember that our brother has some justifiable complaint about us. That's what it really means. How could you come and fellowship in the bread and wine, speaking of the body and blood of Christ, taking that cup which speaks of the communion of saints?

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Don't we say in that cup, I'm one with all who've been redeemed by precious blood? And how could we ever take that cup if we remember that there's been a quarrel with a brother that hasn't been made right?

You know, as a Christian, I feel that the three hardest words for us to say are, I was wrong. Ever try it? I tell you, they're hard to say. And I've had to say it. I've had to say it. I say to my shame.

And yet I can say this, that some of the people that I've had to say it to have become my closest friends in life. It didn't alienate us, it drew us closer. And so that's what the Lord Jesus is saying here.

Did you bring your gift to the altar? Do you remember your brother has something against you? He says, first go thy way, be reconciled with thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. And then I'll receive your gift, when I know that it's all right between you and the rest of your fellow believers.

But dear friends, there was nothing in the law that ever told people to do that. This shows how elevated and exalted the teaching of the Lord Jesus is for those who are to be in his kingdom over what we found in the Old Testament scripture.

Reconciliation Instead of Litigation

And then there's a slightly different thought in verse 25. It says, agree with thine adversary quickly. And as you read the passage of scripture, it becomes apparent that your adversary here is your creditor.

You owe him something. It might be money, it might be something else. And you say, well, I'm going to fight it out in a court of law. This legal principle has its limitations as far as Christians are concerned.

It's better to have a wrong perpetrated on you than to commit a wrong. And this spirit of always going to law to exact the uttermost farthing from someone who really has a justifiable complaint against you, that's the very thing the Lord Jesus is speaking about here.

It says, agree with thine adversary quickly. That is, you're walking down to the courthouse together, the two of you, and it says you better come to terms with him quickly, lest the matter should go to law, and you will be delivered to the one translation says executioner.

Well, I think that's a little bit strong. It says the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer deliver thee to the prison. Verily I say unto you, you won't come out till you've paid the uttermost farthing.

What this is really saying is that Christians, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, should be careful about this business of, quote, standing up for their rights, quote, and seeing things through to the bitter end.

It isn't the spirit that moves the Lord Jesus Christ, and it isn't the spirit that should move his followers. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, but committed himself unto him that judgeth righteously.

And this is the type of attitude that befits those who follow such a master. And then the Lord Jesus says, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old times, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and the Pharisees probably prided themselves that they never committed adultery.

Purity of Heart and the Discipline of Temptation

The Lord Jesus said, Just a minute, my dear friend, I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now, you see, the Pharisees were only interested in something that they could be brought into court on.

And the Lord Jesus is interested in something that stains our souls. I don't know anything more searching in the Sermon on the Mount than a passage of scripture like this. The Lord Jesus said, This business of temptation is so real and such a problem in the Christian life that it's oftentimes necessary to take pretty drastic action lest we fall into sin.

He says, Therefore, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee, for it is profitable to thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is profitable to thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. This is drastic action, isn't it?

Thank God you don't have to literally do these things, but sometimes you have to do some things that are pretty extreme. Sometimes you have to put miles between yourself and approaching temptation. If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.

Sometimes you have to learn to avoid petty familiarities, because those are the things that lead to sin. Sometimes you have to learn the discipline of the mind, thinking of things that are pure, thinking of things that are of good report.

The devil is ceaselessly at work to put his people on the shelf. He has two ways of doing it, the devil has. He has more than that, but two basic ways. The devil tries to trip us up in two ways. First of all, with false doctrine, and then with false living.

And you know, if he can't trip you up into false doctrine, if he can't make you have doubts with regard to the virgin birth of Christ and his sinless perfection and his atoning death and his resurrection and his coming again, he'll try to trip you up on the subject of morals.

And the Lord Jesus is saying here, be prepared to take drastic action if necessary to avoid this type of thing. What do you do in that moment of fierce temptation? Dear friends, there's one good thing we can do, that is this.

Call upon the name of the Lord. I often think of that verse, the name of the Lord is a strong power, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. Isn't that lovely? The name of the Lord is a strong power, the righteous runneth into it and is safe.

What does that mean? It means in that moment of fierce temptation, you call upon the name of the Lord and you're safe. And then I think it's good to remember, too, that our minds are so constituted that we can not think about Christ and about sin at the same time.

Did you ever notice that? You can't think about the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't be occupied with him and be occupied with sin at the same time. And the secret of deliverance from the power of indwelling sin is occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But we all with unveiled faith, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are chained to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And so the Lord looks into our hearts, and he sees not only an adultery that's outward, but he sees adultery that's inward.

And he says, avoid it like you'd avoid the plague. And it's necessary to take drastic action, because it'd be better to go into eternity maimed than to go into hell with all your limbs. That's what he said.

Marriage, Divorce, and the Heart of the Law

And then it says in verse 31, it has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication causes her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Now it's rather surprising to go back into the Old Testament and find that the divorce law there was very, very easy. A man could put away his wife for almost any cause. A woman, if he no longer loved her, that was sufficient.

All the law of Moses stipulated was that he must give her a writing of divorcement. That is, it had to be legal. She was entitled to receive a piece of paper saying that a legal divorce had taken place.

It was all of us to it. And so the Pharisees would pride themselves that they had always kept the letter of the law. That is, if they had divorced their wives, they had given her the piece of paper required by the law.

But they never stopped to think that the law had a deeper meaning than that. They never stopped to think of the altar of the Lord that was wet with the tears of women who had been put away for no cause, for no justifiable cause.

And they never stopped to think that in that society they put a woman away. What was she to do? What was she to do? She couldn't go down and work in a factory or an office like women can today. She couldn't do it.

What happened to the poor woman? She was cast out into a life of sin. That's what happened to her. In order to make a livelihood. God sees all this. The Pharisees prided themselves on never being caught in something that could be tried in a court of law.

But the Lord Jesus is saying, My friend, don't you have any regard for human emotions? Don't you have any regard for broken hearts? For tears that are shed? In my kingdom these things count. My religion isn't a religion just of external.

In keeping the letter of the law, my religion goes to the heart. God desires truth in the inward part. So it was said in the Old Testament that if you put away your wife for any cause, you must give her a bill of divorce.

But I say unto you that if you put away your wife for any cause save fornication, you cause her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced will commit adultery. This word fornication has two meanings in the Bible.

Sometimes it means unlawful sexual intercourse between unmarried persons, and sometimes fornication means the same as adultery, unlawful sexual intercourse among married persons. And here I believe it's the same as adultery.

And what the word of God is saying here is that scripturally there's one ground for divorce, and that is where there has been unfaithfulness on the part of one of the members of the marriage relationship.

I'd like to point out to you this, dear friends, that how carefully the Bible is written. The Bible doesn't say that where one member has been unfaithful, the other has to get a divorce. It doesn't say that.

It doesn't say that. It says he may, or she may, but it doesn't say he has to. Why? Because the grace of God can always superabound in cases like this, and often does. When you think of the grace that God has shown to us, the things that we've done, how we've sinned against him, and how his grace has been greater than all our sins, it's wonderful to see that type of grace reflected in those who are his children.

So I marvel when I read my Bible and find that God doesn't say you have to do it. There's a better way, but he permits it. He permits it in cases of duress, and so he says that this is legal ground for divorce, but if you're divorced for any other cause, you cause her to commit adultery.

Why? Well, for the very reason we've already mentioned, that she didn't have any means of livelihood. She was cast out of the world without any means of support, and God saw that. And so you cause her to commit adultery, and whosoever marries her that is divorced commits adultery.

Truthful Speech Without Oaths

And then in the next section, the Lord Jesus said, and it was said in old times, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform thine oaths to the Lord. What does it mean to forswear yourself? Well, to forswear yourself is to take an oath in the presence of God that you'll do a certain thing and then fail to do it.

That's forswearing. It's to take an oath before God that you will do a certain thing and then failing to do it. Or it could be the equivalent of what we would speak of as perjury today, false witness perjury.

Now, the Old Testament said, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. The Lord Jesus said, I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by the heavens for it's God's throne, nor by the earth for it's his footstool, neither by Jerusalem for it's the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair black, white or black.

Let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. You know, it's an interesting thing in the study of human nature, how people have to be swearing by something, isn't it?

I, as I move among ungodly men, I'm always amazed at the persons by whom they swear. They swear by God. They swear by Jesus. They never swear by the Pope. Did you ever notice that? I never heard anybody swear by the Pope, or by the leader of any other human religion.

Never heard them. They swear by the names of God. Isn't that funny? Why is that? The Lord said, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. God will not hold him guiltless, who taketh his name in vain.

And yet, you know, a lot of people don't swear by God or swear by Jesus, and yet they use what are known as used oaths that are just as bad. Did you ever think that gosh, you know what gosh is? That's just another form of the word God.

It's a contraction or a slang expression. When you say by gosh, you're saying by God. The same is true of the word golly. It's just another name for God. People don't want to say Jesus, so they say, gee, that's what it is.

And a lot of people wouldn't say damn, but they say darn. It's just another form of the same word. Now, where the Lord Jesus is teaching in this portion of scripture is that the speech of the Christian should be so transparently honest that he doesn't need any other word.

That's what that sentence means. Let your speech be yay, yay, nay, nay. But whatsoever is more than these come up of evil. That is, it means when you say yes, mean yes. When you say no, mean no. And have it understood with all the people with whom you work, the people with whom you fellowship, that your word is as good as your bond, and you don't have to swear by anything else.

You don't say by heaven, because the heavens are the throne of God. You don't swear by the earth, because the earth is his footstool. You don't swear by Jupiter or some other names that you occasionally hear.

You don't have to. The Christian speech should be forthright and, as I say, so transparently honest that none of these words are needed at all. We had a contractor living up near us, a Christian contractor, and I was intrigued to find out that the subcontractors and the other people with whom he worked never asked him to put his name to an agreement.

He was never called upon to put his name to an agreement. They knew that his word was absolutely trustworthy. Well, that's exactly what you have here. Let's just speak the yea, yea. When you say yes, mean yes.

You say you'll be there at a certain hour, you'll be there at a certain time. And have your life in such order that people will come to know that you're a man, a woman of your word. That's what the Lord Jesus is teaching here.

Nonretaliation and Voluntary Service

Then it says in verse 38, He hath heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. What does that mean? Well, it means that in the Old Testament that God set down certain standards, and when an injury was performed on a certain man, well, he was only allowed to exact that certain amount of recompense.

If in a quarrel a man's eye was put out, well, the law permitted nothing more than that to happen to the other man. This wasn't a cruel enactment, it merely limited the amount of punishment. The man lost a tooth accidentally, well, the law set a tooth for a tooth.

You can only remove one tooth for a tooth. But notice what the Lord Jesus said, I say unto you that ye resist not evil. Whosoever shall smite thee on the right, turn to thee the left also. If any man will sue the law and take away thine overcoat, let him have your suit coat too.

And whosoever shall compel thee to go with him a mile, go with him twain. In those days it was possible for governmental officials, and especially for those connected with the army, to find a person along the highway and to require that person to devote some of his services to the cause of the government.

They could compel you to go with them a mile. Well, the Lord Jesus says, go with them two if he compels you to go with them a mile. Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away.

What do you think of those instructions? It wouldn't be a shock to the world if this sort of thing were carried out. Yet the Lord Jesus taught it. I'd like to give you a very simple illustration of it.

This actually happened in Lawrence, Kansas. A young fellow had just been saved, and he had been reading this passage of scripture. Shortly after he had been reading it, he met a man who needed fifty cents for a certain legitimate reason.

The man was an unsaved man. He went up to this young Christian, and he presented his need. The young Christian said, I'm sorry. He said, I can't give you fifty cents. He said, I can give you a dollar, but I can't give you fifty cents.

The man nearly fell over in a dead faint. And so he said, all I need is fifty cents. He said, if you just let me have fifty cents, and of course it was, I say, a legitimate need. He said, I can't give you fifty cents, but I can give you a dollar.

So the man remonstrated with him, and they talked back and forth, and finally the young man told him why, and used it as a springboard for the gospel. In other words, it had been a type of behavior that this other man was just completely flabbergasted by.

He never heard of anything like that in his life. Now, verse 42 must be qualified. Sometimes I walk down along State Street in Chicago, and a man comes up to me and asks me for money. Does that mean I should give it to him?

Listen, the word of God never tells me to do anything that would harm a man. It never does. The word of God never tells me to do anything that would harm a man. And if he were going to use that money in a way that would be harmful to his body and soul, to drink distilled damnation that would lead him down the path to hell, I'm not supposed to give it to him.

That's the only qualification that we find here in the word of God. And then the Lord Jesus says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Well, that's strong, isn't it? Did it really say that?

Loving Enemies Through Divine Grace

Well, in a way it really did in the Old Testament. I'll tell you how. First of all, it said, Love your neighbor. It said that in the law. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But did it really say in the Old Testament, Thou shalt hate thine enemy?

Well, I think where this arose was that when the children of Israel were sent into the land of Canaan, they were told to exterminate the inhabitants of Canaan, weren't they? God said to them, Don't leave one of them alive.

God said that Canaanite nation is a gangrenous limb on the human race. And unless it's cut off, it's going to infect the rest of the human race. And I want you to exterminate every last Canaanite. And I think that's where this thought arose.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But the Lord Jesus said, Say unto you, Love your enemy, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.

Once again, I think it's absolutely important to emphasize that this is something that you cannot do except by the power of the Spirit of God. It really takes divine life to live this kind of an existence, doesn't it?

And yet the Lord Jesus doesn't tell us to do anything he didn't do himself. You study the life of the Savior in the gospel, and this is what you find. Men would come to him, as it were, and wound him with their fists, and he'd turn and say, Did you hurt yourself?

That was the spirit, at least, of the Lord Jesus, if it didn't happen in so many words. Now, when it says in verse 45 that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, it doesn't mean that you become a child of your Father in this way.

That's not part of the Bible. You don't become a child of God the Father by living this kind of a life. What it means is that you manifest yourself as being a child of the Father, that ye may be manifestly the children of your Father which is in heaven.

This is how people will see the family resemblance, because this is the way God acts. How? He sends his Son to shine on the just and on the unjust, and he causes his rain to fall on the gardens of the wicked just as well as on the gardens of the good.

For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Then I like these next verses. It says, If you love those who love you, what do you more than the publicans?

The publicans were the Bureau of Internal Revenue. They were the tax collectors, and while they were Jews, they were cordially hated by the Jews because they represented the Roman government, and the Jews didn't have a good thought concerning the Roman government.

So these tax collectors were cordially detested by the mass of the Jewish people. Matthew was a publican. He was a tax collector, and the Lord said, Why the publicans are like that? They go down into the marketplaces, and one says, Hi, Joe, and the other says, Hi, Pete, how are you?

And that doesn't take divine light to do that, does it? And it does. It doesn't take divine light to love those who love you. Do not even the publicans the same. It says, And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?

Do not even the publicans. So, and of course, they do. Publicans are good to those who are good to them. It's just that spirit of comradeship that's throughout human life. But the Lord says, I want a different kind of testimony to my name in the earth.

I want a race of people who love those who hate them. You know, I think one of the most striking experiences I've had in recent years took place when I spent a time in prayer with Mr. McCulley, the father of one of the boys who was killed in Ecuador by the Alka Indians.

One night he came to my apartment. We talked about various business matters, and then when we got through, we got down on our knees and we had a time of prayer together. Now, just remember, this man lost a son in Ecuador.

Their son was murdered by a savage tribe of Stone Age Indians. And during the course of his prayer, Mr. McCulley on his knees prayed, And father, let me live long enough to see some of those fellows saved who killed our boy, that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my Christ.

Let me just say that to you again. He said, And father, let me live long enough to see some of those fellows saved who killed our boy, that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my Christ.

Dear friends, that's what we've been reading about tonight in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a wonderful thing that he's lived long enough to see it and to do it. Because recently he was down in Ecuador and he put his arms around some of those savages who killed his boy, Ed McCulley, and he told them he loved them.

And he told them he was praying that they soon would go down to the down river outcrops and carry the story of redemption to them. And then the Lord Jesus closes this wonderful chapter with this verse, it says, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Christian Maturity Expressed in Love

Now, this word perfect is difficult for some people because they immediately make it mean sinless, and it doesn't mean sinless here. In fact, usually in the New Testament, the word perfect means mature.

And if you'll remember that, it'll help you a great deal with some of those difficult passages. But here, the word perfect is explained in the passage itself. What does it mean to be perfect like God is perfect?