There's a verse in Matthew chapter 5 which has always troubled me, 'Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect'- and it's troubled me on a number of levels. Firstly, how can the imperfect be perfect? Secondly, if I strive for perfection, I am, as an imperfect creature, doomed to failure, and if I take this command to perfection seriously, and am always doomed to failure, this could seriously impact my mental health, my spiritual confidence; is this part of God's desire in my search for the unattainable?
Pity that ihis verse trapped so many into falsehood about what it means, and what it encourages us to be, to do. A better translation is 'be all-including, as your heavenly father is all-including' .Or, 'be indiscriminate in your loving and well-doing' Well, still difficult, but a bit more accommodating of prejudiced eejuts like me. We love tribe- is he one of us? - and these words of Jesus are a challenge to tribal boundaries, in-crowd mentalities, exclusive zones.
So, to love the next person whom I meet, even if it's Boris Johnson.......
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