What does Jesus mean that we should be perfect, as Jesus is perfect? Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin look at the context of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5 where this passage is found.
Reconciliation with God affirms the worth of our persons, and it banishes the inhibitions and fears, as well as the resentments and desire for revenge, which create gulches between us and those around us.
The central message of Christianity is not a worldview, a way of life, or a program for personal or societal change; it is a person and the message of the cross.