Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

We can love our enemies and they may spit in our faces. They may see our love as weakness and take advantage of us. We love them because it refelcts the love of our Father in heaven. When people see us loving those who do not love us and seeking the best for those who have made themselves our enemies, they see something godlike. Being perfect is the sense of being well-rounded or complete or fulfilling the function (or performing the function) for which God made us. As we deal lovingly with people, we become well-rounded and complete. God does not discriminate in showing love, neither should we. We are never more like God than when we act in

love toward another human being. This verse fulfills its purpose if it drives us back to God for the inner righteousness of thought and motive only He can give. We cannot live such lives in our own power. In our relationship with God, He works in us to establish the same kinds of relationships with others. He gives us the internal desire to keep the spirit of the Law. We must understand the heart of God. It is only through Christ that we become perfect.

(portions of these words taken from Haddon W. Robinson's book "What Jesus Said About Successful Living")