Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 Through 7
Message Six
Being Perfect as Our Heavenly Father Is Perfect
THE EXTRACT OF THE OUTLINES
Scripture reading:
Matt. 5:20 For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.
44-45 But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, So that you may become sons of your Father who is in the heavens, because He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
I. Therefore you shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect; we are the Father’s children, having the Father’s divine life and nature, and thus we can be perfect as the Father is—Matt. 5:48: (Monday)
A. The divine life enables us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect; the way to be perfected is to remain in the divine communion, continually receiving and enjoying the dispensing of the processed Triune God—Matt. 5:48.
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B. Ephesians 4 speaks of perfecting the new man through the growth in life; the new man, which is organically perfect, needs to be perfected through the growth in life so that it can function properly—Eph. 4:13. (Tuesday)
C. For us to be perfected, we need to be constituted with Christ; this means that when the All-Inclusive Christ is wrought into us to become our everything, the organically perfect new man will be perfected in its function—Col. 3:10-11.
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II. For the kingdom people to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect means to be perfect in His love—Matt. 5:20, 44-45: (Wednesday)
A. The divine love is the nature of God’s essence; this divine love, as an attribute of God’s essence, is mainly manifested in God’s sending His Son to redeem us and to dispense the divine life into us so that we may become His children—1 John 4:8, 10.
B. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us; the God of love is the divine essence that has been poured out in our hearts—Rom. 5:5.
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C. For the building up of the Body of Christ, love is the most excellent way in all that we are and do; God first loved us, infused His love into us, and generated love in us so that we may love God and all the saints with this love—1 Cor. 12:31; 1 John 4:19-21. (Thursday, Friday)
D. We must be those who are flooded and constrained by the love of Christ; the divine love should be like a mighty tide rushing upon us, constraining us so that we cannot help but live to Him—2 Cor. 5:14.
E. We are the God-kind because we have been born of God, having His life and nature; since we have become God in life and nature through regeneration, we are also love—John 3:5-7; 1 John 4:16.
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F. First John 4 tells us how we can have boldness to stand before the judgment seat of Christ; the secret is to abide in love—v. 17. (Saturday)
G. To abide in love is to live a life of loving Christ; perfect love is the love that has been perfected in us because we love others with the love of God—1 John 4:17-18.
