Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 5:48
There are 24 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 80, footnote 15 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter III.—Avoid schismatics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 903 (In-Text, Margin)
... while yet you admonish them, and exhort them to repentance, if it may be they will hear, if it may be they will submit themselves. For our God is a lover of mankind, and “will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Wherefore “He makes His sun to rise upon the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust;” of whose kindness the Lord, wishing us also to be imitators, says, “Be ye perfect, even as also your Father that is in heaven is perfect.”[Matthew 5:48]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 504, footnote 3 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XII.—Human Nature Possesses an Adaptation for Perfection; The Gnostic Alone Attains It. (HTML)
... divine power of goodness clinging to the righteous soul in contemplation and in prophecy, and in the exercise of the function of governing, impresses on it something, as it were, of intellectual radiance, like the solar ray, as a visible sign of righteousness, uniting the soul with light, through unbroken love, which is God-bearing and God-borne. Thence assimilation to God the Saviour arises to the Gnostic, as far as permitted to human nature, he being made perfect “as the Father who is in heaven.”[Matthew 5:48]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 546, footnote 11 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—Description of the Gnostic Continued. (HTML)
He never remembers those who have sinned against him, but forgives them. Wherefore also he righteously prays, saying, “Forgive us; for we also forgive.” For this also is one of the things which God wishes, to covet nothing, to hate no one. For all men are the work of one will. And is it not the Saviour, who wishes the Gnostic to be perfect as “the heavenly Father,”[Matthew 5:48] that is, Himself, who says, “Come, ye children, hear from me the fear of the Lord?” He wishes him no longer to stand in need of help by angels, but to receive it from Himself, having become worthy, and to have protection from Himself by obedience.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 289, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion. He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God. (HTML)
The Goodness of Marcion's God Only Imperfectly Manifested; It Saves But Few, and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion's Contempt of the Body Absurd. (HTML)
But as God is eternal and rational, so, I think, He is perfect in all things. “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”[Matthew 5:48] Prove, then, that the goodness of your god also is a perfect one. That it is indeed imperfect has been already sufficiently shown, since it is found to be neither natural nor rational. The same conclusion, however, shall now be made clear by another method; it is not simply imperfect, but actually feeble, weak, and exhausted, failing to embrace the full number of its material objects, and not manifesting itself in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 19, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On the Apparel of Women. (HTML)
II (HTML)
Introduction. Modesty to Be Observed Not Only in Its Essence, But in Its Accessories. (HTML)
... commit the sin, but still to be willing to do so; or even not to be willing, yet still not quite to refuse—what wonder? for all things which are not God’s are perverse. Let those women therefore look to it, who, by not holding fast the whole good, easily mingle with evil even what they do hold fast. Necessary it is that you turn aside from them, as in all other things, so also in your gait; since you ought to be “perfect, as (is) your Father who is in the heavens.”[Matthew 5:48]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 275, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The God of the Law and the Prophets, and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Same God. (HTML)
... Himself, and not another different from Him, uttered these predictions. The practice, moreover, of the Saviour or His apostles, frequently quoting illustrations from the Old Testament, shows that they attribute authority to the ancients. The injunction also of the Saviour, when exhorting His disciples to the exercise of kindness, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect; for He commands His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,”[Matthew 5:48] most evidently suggests even to a person of feeble understanding, that He is proposing to the imitation of His disciples no other God than the maker of heaven and the bestower of the rain. Again, what else does the expression, which ought to be used ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 381, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
IV (HTML)
Sections 24-End translated from the Latin. (HTML)
... be discovered traces of the divine image, not by any appearance of the bodily frame, which is corruptible, but by mental wisdom, by justice, moderation, virtue, wisdom, discipline; in fine, by the whole band of virtues, which are innate in the essence of God, and which may enter into man by diligence and imitation of God; as the Lord also intimates in the Gospel, when He says, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful;” and, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father also is perfect.”[Matthew 5:48] From which it is clearly shown that all these virtues are perpetually in God, and that they can never approach to or depart from Him, whereas by men they are acquired only slowly, and one by one. And hence also by these means they seem to have a ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 509, footnote 12 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXIX (HTML)
... (either by those who possess intelligence or who do not, but have misconceived sound reason), that “God exists, and we are next to Him,” I would interpret the word “we,” by using in its stead, “We who act according to reason,” or rather, “We virtuous, who act according to reason.” For, in our opinion, the same virtue belongs to all the blessed, so that the virtue of man and of God is identical. And therefore we are taught to become “perfect,” as our Father in heaven is perfect.[Matthew 5:48] No good and virtuous man, then, is a “worm rolling in filth,” nor is a pious man an “ant,” nor a righteous man a “frog;” nor could one whose soul is enlightened with the bright light of truth be reasonably likened to a “bird of the night.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 485, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Advantage of Patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3597 (In-Text, Margin)
... Love your enemies, and pray for them which persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and raineth upon the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward shall ye have? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye shall salute your brethren only, what do ye more (than others)? do not even the heathens the same thing? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”[Matthew 5:43-48] He said that the children of God would thus become perfect. He showed that they were thus completed, and taught that they were restored by a heavenly birth, if the patience of God our Father dwell in us—if the divine likeness, which Adam had lost by ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 58, footnote 11 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)
The Diatessaron. (HTML)
Section IX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 714 (In-Text, Margin)
... [18] sinners also lend to sinners, seeking recompense from them. But love your enemies, and do good to them, and lend, and cut not off the hope of any man; that your reward may be great, and ye may be the children of the Highest: for he is lenient [19] towards the wicked and the ungrateful. Be ye merciful, even as your Father also is [20] merciful. And if ye inquire for the good of your brethren only, what more have [21] ye done than others? is not this the conduct of the publicans also?[Matthew 5:48] Be ye now perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 140, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death of his friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of having received baptism in the thirty-third year of his age; and of the virtues and death of his mother, Monica. (HTML)
He Entreats God for Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her Piously. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 792 (In-Text, Margin)
34. But,—my heart being now healed of that wound, in so far as it could be convicted of a carnal affection,—I pour out unto Thee, O our God, on behalf of that Thine handmaid, tears of a far different sort, even that which flows from a spirit broken by the thoughts of the dangers of every soul that dieth in Adam. And although she, having been “made alive” in Christ even before she was freed from the flesh had so lived as to praise Thy name both by her faith and conversation, yet dare I not say[Matthew 5:48] that from the time Thou didst regenerate her by baptism, no word went forth from her mouth against Thy precepts. And it hath been declared by Thy Son, the Truth, that “Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 251, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense. Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 723 (In-Text, Margin)
... chastenest Thou them by little and little that offend, and warnest them by putting them in remembrance wherein they have offended, that learning their wickedness, they may believe in Thee, O Lord." Christ exhorts us to imitate this long-suffering goodness of God, who maketh the sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust; that we may not be careful to revenge, but may do good to them that hate us, and so may be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.[Matthew 5:48] From another passage in these ancient books we learn that, by not exacting the vengeance due to us, we obtain the remission of our own sins; and that by not forgiving the debts of others, we incur the danger of being refused forgiveness when we pray ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 53, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
An Objection of the Pelagians; Perfection is Relative; He is Rightly Said to Be Perfect in Righteousness Who Has Made Much Progress Therein. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 547 (In-Text, Margin)
“Well, but,” they say, “the Lord says, ‘Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,’[Matthew 5:48] —an injunction which He would not have given, if He had known that what He enjoined was impracticable.” Now the present question is not whether it be possible for any men, during this present life, to be without sin if they receive that perfection for the purpose; for the question of possibility we have already discussed: —but what we have now to consider is, whether any man in fact achieves perfection. We have, however, already recognised ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 165, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
Who May Be Said to Walk Without Spot; Damnable and Venial Sins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1431 (In-Text, Margin)
Having premised these remarks, let us carefully attend to the passages which he whom we are answering has produced, as if we ourselves had quoted them. “In Deuteronomy, ‘Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God.’ Again, in the same book, ‘There shall be not an imperfect man among the sons of Israel.’ In like manner the Saviour says in the Gospel, Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’[Matthew 5:48] So the apostle, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, says: ‘Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect.’ Again, to the Colossians he writes: ‘Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.’ And so to the Philippians: ‘Do all ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 466, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John I. 1–II. 11. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2040 (In-Text, Margin)
... live. He was casting out from them the death which is for ever and ever, by His most merciful prayer, and by His most surpassing might. Many of them believed, and the shedding of the blood of Christ was forgiven them. At first they shed it while they raged; now they drank it while they believed. “In this we know that we are in Him, if in Him we be made perfect.” Touching the very perfection of love of enemies, the Lord admonishing, saith, “Be ye therefore perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.[Matthew 5:48] He,” therefore, “that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” How, brethren? what doth he advise us? “He that saith he abideth in Him,” i.e., in Christ, “ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 188, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm L (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1791 (In-Text, Margin)
... Now, “These things hast thou done, and I held my tongue.” What is, “I held my tongue”? From vengeance I have desisted, my severity I have deferred, patience to thee I have prolonged, thy repentance I have long looked for…“Thou hast imagined iniquity, that I shall be like unto thee;” Thou hast imagined that I shall be like unto thee, while thou wilt not be like unto Me. For, “Be ye,” he saith, “perfect, even as your Father, which is in the heavens, who maketh His sun to rise on the good and evil.”[Matthew 5:48] Him thou wouldest not copy, who giveth good things even to evil men, insomuch that sitting thou dost detract even from good men. “I will reprove thee,” when “God manifest shall come, our God, and shall not keep silence,” “I will reprove thee.” And ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 404, footnote 10 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse III (HTML)
Texts Explained; Ninthly, John x. 30; xvii. 11, &c. Arian explanation, that the Son is one with the Father in will and judgment; but so are all good men, nay things inanimate; contrast of the Son. Oneness between Them is in nature, because oneness in operation. Angels not objects of prayer, because they do not work together with God, but the Son; texts quoted. Seeing an Angel, is not seeing God. Arians in fact hold two Gods, and tend to Gentile polytheism. Arian explanation that the Father and Son are one as we are one with Christ, is put aside by the Regula Fidei, and shewn invalid by the usage of Scripture in illustrations; the true force of the comparison; force of the terms used. Force of 'in us;' force of 'as;' confirmed by S. John. In (HTML)
19. Again, taking patterns for man from divine subjects, the Saviour says; ‘Be ye merciful, as your Father which is in heaven is merciful;’ and, ‘Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect[Matthew 5:48].’ And He said this too, not that we might become such as the Father; for to become as the Father, is impossible for us creatures, who have been brought to be out of nothing; but as He charged us, ‘Be ye not like to horse,’ not lest we should become as draught animals, but that we should not imitate their want of reason, so, not that we might become as God, did He say, ‘Be ye merciful as your ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 492, footnote 6 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) (HTML)
Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3753 (In-Text, Margin)
... by virtue and will is liable also to the purpose of changing; but the Word is not thus, unless He is ‘like’ in part, and as we are, because He is not like [God] in essence also. But these characteristics belong to us, who are originate, and of a created nature. For we too, albeit we cannot become like God in essence, yet by progress in virtue imitate God, the Lord granting us this grace, in the words, ‘Be ye merciful as your Father is merciful:’ ‘be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect[Matthew 5:48].’ But that originate things are changeable, no one can deny, seeing that angels transgressed, Adam disobeyed, and all stand in need of the grace of the Word. But a mutable thing cannot be like God who is truly unchangeable, any more than what is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 454, footnote 13 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5172 (In-Text, Margin)
14. C. The task I set you just now was an easy one by way of practice for something more difficult. What have you to say to my next argument? Clever as you are, all your skill will not avail to overthrow it. I shall first quote from the Old Testament, then from the New. Moses is the chief figure in the Old Testament, our Lord and Saviour in the New. Moses says to the people, “Be perfect in the sight of the Lord your God.” And the Saviour bids the Apostles[Matthew 5:48] “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Now it was either possible for the hearers to do what Moses and the Lord commanded, or, if it be impossible, the fault does not lie with them who cannot obey, but with Him who gave impossible commands.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 35, footnote 12 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
Concerning the Unity of God. On the Article, I Believe in One God. Also Concerning Heresies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 848 (In-Text, Margin)
... level of things human, and supposed that the Unsearchable exists in the likeness of man. Some again dared to say that He has seven eyes, because it is written, seven eyes of the Lord looking upon the whole earth. For if He has but seven eyes surrounding Him in part, His seeing is therefore partial and not perfect: but to say this of God is blasphemous; for we must believe that God is in all things perfect, according to our Saviour’s word, which saith, Your Father in heaven is perfect[Matthew 5:48]: perfect in sight, perfect in power, perfect in greatness, perfect in foreknowledge, perfect in goodness, perfect in justice, perfect in loving-kindness: not circumscribed in any space, but the Creator of all space, existing in all, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 69, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter II. The discussions among philosophers about the comparison between what is virtuous and what is useful have nothing to do with Christians. For with them nothing is useful which is not just. What are the duties of perfection, and what are ordinary duties? The same words often suit different things in different ways. Lastly, a just man never seeks his own advantage at the cost of another's disadvantage, but rather is always on the lookout for what is useful to others. (HTML)
11. Again, the same words often have a different meaning. For instance, we call God good and a man good; but it bears in each case quite a different meaning. We call God just in one sense, man in another. So, too, there is a difference in meaning when we call God wise and a man wise. This we are taught in the Gospel: “Be ye perfect even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect.”[Matthew 5:48] I read again that Paul was perfect and yet not perfect. For when he said: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend it.” Immediately he added: “We, then, that are perfect.” There is a twofold form of perfection, the one having but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 203, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter I. The author distinguishes the faith from the errors of Pagans, Jews, and Heretics, and after explaining the significance of the names “God” and “Lord,” shows clearly the difference of Persons in Unity of Essence. In dividing the Essence, the Arians not only bring in the doctrine of three Gods, but even overthrow the dominion of the Trinity. (HTML)
9. Moreover, Christ Himself saith: “I and the Father are One.” “One,” said He, that there be no separation of power and nature; but again, “ We are, ” that you may recognize Father and Son, forasmuch as the perfect Father is believed to have begotten the perfect Son,[Matthew 5:48] and the Father and the Son are One, not by confusion of Person, but by unity of nature.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 295, footnote 9 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter VII. Objection is taken to the following passage: “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” To remove it, he shows first the impiety of the Arian explanation; then compares these words with others; and lastly, takes the whole passage into consideration. Hence he gathers that the mission of Christ, although it is to be received according to the flesh, is not to His detriment. When this is proved he shows how the divine mission takes place. (HTML)
90. And if they start a debate on the words that are written: “And Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me,” and think a comparison is intended; they must think that the following also was said by way of comparison: “Be ye merciful, as your Father Which is in heaven is merciful;” and elsewhere: “Be ye perfect, as My Father Which is in heaven is perfect.”[Matthew 5:48] But if He is perfect in the fulness of His glory, we are but perfect according to the growth of virtue within us. The Son also is loved by the Father according to the fulness of a love that ever abideth, but in us growth in grace merits the love of God.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 417, footnote 7 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XI. The First Conference of Abbot Chæremon. On Perfection. (HTML)
Chapter VII. By what steps we can ascend to the heights of love and what permanence there is in it. (HTML)
... counted worthy to receive the image and likeness of our heavenly Father, and be able to say after the likeness of the true son: “All that the Father hath is mine.” Which also the blessed Apostle declares of us, saying: “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” And to this likeness the commands of our Saviour also summon us: “Be ye,” says He, “perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”[Matthew 5:48] For in these persons sometimes the love of goodness is found to be interrupted, when the vigour of the soul is relaxed by some coldness or joy or delight, and so loses either the fear of hell for the time, or the desire of future blessings. And ...