Around most Christians, if you want to lose an audience real fast, or risk sparking some hot contention, just mention the word “perfection”. But yet everybody wants to find that perfect mate, have a perfect wedding, a perfect marriage, perfect kids, a perfect job, live in the perfect neighborhood, have perfect skin, find the perfect shoes to go with the perfect outfit, make perfect chocolate chip cookies… it’s endless! So what’s so scary about Bible perfection?
Well, for one thing, we’ve never seen anybody do it, like Jesus did it. We’ve seen some amazing godly men, men that we esteem greater than ourselves, from Bible times to the present… but no one that quite measured up to Jesus, THE standard of perfection. So the natural conclusion is to say it can’t be done… if they couldn’t do it, then how could I? But does that make the Word untrue? And do we understand what the Word is really saying?
Another reason, is that most Christians just don’t take the time and effort to study the Word, and listen to the Holy Ghost teacher. It’s kind of scary to them, so they’re content to let a preacher “simplify” it. The gospel IS so simple that it requires a child’s heart to understand it, but man’s efforts to make it simple usually involve taking something OUT, which turns out to be the very POWER of the Word.
It’s actually pretty fascinating when you look at what the Word of God really says about perfection. And it just might challenge some long-held doctrines and ideas.
Here are a few examples to provoke you to dig into God’s Word for yourself, for the answers:
It says Jesus was perfected through sufferings. So was He not perfect BEFORE the sufferings? Are we perfected through sufferings, too?
Paul said he was not already perfect, but then says, “Let us therefore, as many as BE perfect…”, and “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect.” He isn’t, but then he IS???
Jesus told a man, that if he wanted to be perfect, to sell all that he had, and give it to the poor. But Jesus didn’t require that of everybody else. Is there a different “perfect” for different people?
Jesus said to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect. Is that a commandment? If so, can we say we are keeping all God’s commandments, if we’re not perfect?
Is sincerely “trying” to be perfect (and falling short) good enough? Or is “trying” the wrong approach, altogether?
It says by one offering, [Christ] has perfected forever (past tense), them that are sanctified. So when and how do we get sanctified?
Is perfection past, present, or future? Or all three, in different ways?
What’s the relationship between righteousness and perfection? Are they the same?
Is there such a thing as MORE perfect? If so, then what would be LESS perfect?
Does God make us perfect, or do we make ourselves perfect? How, and when?
Can a Christian ever say in this life, in this body, “I am perfect?”
Is it scripturally correct to say, “Nobody’s perfect”, or “no one can ever be perfect”?
Do you have to be perfect, to go to heaven? (Now that’s a big one.)
It’s clear that no single cookie-cutter definition of ‘perfect’ fits all. That’s why we need to study, to rightly divide the word of truth, because the truth… even the truth of perfection… brings liberty, not bondage.
I find 60 times that some form of the word ‘perfect’ is used in the New Testament. We cannot skip over perfection in the Bible, any more than we can skip over grace. (That’s another one that scares some Christians.) It all needs to be understood and taught, as there are precious children of God, who feel frustrated, discouraged, and condemned… striving and failing to achieve some mistaken concept of perfection by their own works. There are others, who trust in a false grace, that they’re already perfect, and see no need to repent and change, despite continuing to live an unruly, sinful, ungodly life. Still others are content to be as perfect as their friends.
Ready to study? The TRUTH sets us free… free to BE all that God has called us to be, and DO all that God has called us to do! And that is to BE LIKE JESUS!
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