Be Perfect as Your Heavenly Father is Perfect...How's That for a Challenge?

I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven...If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than other? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. 
Matthew 5:44-48


God, you had me until the perfect part.

I know, even what precedes that is incredibly challenging.

I am not sure if I've ever seen it done consistently.

There have been incidents when I've practiced this, but I can't even come close to saying this is the way I live my life. I want to. Even as impossible and difficult this way of life is, there is truth there that resonates deep within my soul.

I want to live in a world like that. I want to be treated like that. I want to live like that.

There is no way I can be that unless God does this work in me.

I am selfish and revengeful by nature. Only God can do this work in me.

But I am not sure if even God can ever make me perfect. How can I be perfect?

What is the meaning behind the perfection. Why would God ask something of me that is impossible? Or is perfection possible?

I've heard scholars say that the word for perfection doesn't have the Greek notion of perfection where it means flawless, without error, etc.

All I know is there are truths in scripture I don't fully understand. And even what I do understand is incredibly challenging.