TEACHING

Daryl Wood

(Daryl is a fivefold teacher on the Kingdomquest apostolic team.)

BE PERFECT

"Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48)."

I know of no other red-lettered verse that gets less air-time than this one. It doesn’t seem to preach well in virtually any church circle, and I suppose that there are several reasons why this is so. Not the least of these is reflected in the popularly touted slogan, "Christians aren’t perfect—just forgiven." Sadly, it seems the consensus position of the Christian community on this verse can be summarized in the mistranslation: "No man is perfect (nor will he ever be, at least on this side of the grave); only the Father in heaven is perfect."

In a time when the importance of confession of faith is widely recognized and often receives its due emphasis, this is clearly not the case when it comes to the subject of perfection. Unbelief remains in spite of an abundance of promises from God to the contrary and the biblical testimonies regarding those who have attained to the same.

"This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God (Gen. 6:9)."

"Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless (Hebrew "tawm" means perfect) and upright man, who fears God and shuns evil (Job 1:8)?’"

"I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart . . . . My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me (Ps. 101:2, 6)."

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (Jas. 1:2-4)."

"Him (Christ) we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28)."

"Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God (Col. 4:12)."

Since the Scriptures hold out such clarity—not only concerning God’s will and intention regarding this matter, but also as to its attainability—why is resistance to the notion of perfection in this life almost universal? Certainly much of the confusion must be traceable to the very definition of the word. In even the most fundamental aspects of one’s relationship with Christ, it is woefully common for man to substitute his own definitions for God’s. This blights and distorts the very building blocks that He uses to reproduce His character and power in man. The concept of perfection is just one of many in a lengthy list of qualities that have suffered a similar siege. Others include basics like repentance, faith, "born-again," Christian, and salvation, to name just a few. By and large these terms, while related to the most formative aspects of life in God, are widely misunderstood and vague at best in the minds of many believers today.

The solution to this problem begins with a willingness to discard all of the contemporary "Christianeeze" in favor of His definitions of these terms. Without doing this there will always be a canyon-wide gap between the Word that God declares, and the word that finally reaches the hearers’ ears. By an acknowledgment that His thoughts and His ways are truly higher than one’s own, followed by a sincere quest for God’s, one becomes a candidate for mind renewal. The Lord is then free to attend to the business of forming Himself in His son or daughter.

Concerning the broken definition of "perfection," religious man’s view of this word has forged a notion that is formidably impossible. Even though Jesus declared His yoke to be an easy one and His burden to be light, few would find it conceivable that this is actually consistent with God’s view of perfection. Yet it is for this reason precisely that perfection seems to remain outside the realm of possibility for the great majority.

At least a couple of suppositions stand in the way. First, most assume that "perfection" implies that one has never sinned. Since all who have the moral capability of sinning have already done so (save the Spotless Lamb), this instantly eliminates all but Jesus.

Next, most associate "perfection" with a guarantee that there will not be even one sinful lapse in the future. Since not even the boldest have the confidence to make this claim, Jesus is again regarded as the only man throughout the span of history who is capable of even touching it.

Both of these considerations of perfection are clearly unrealistic, and both are also inconsistent with God’s use of the term in the Scriptures. When Jesus put forth the promise, "Therefore you shall be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect," He knew full well the frailty of man. He was not cruelly teasing him with a command that was beyond his reach, but rather extending an invitation to walk in a greater dimension of grace than he had hitherto considered. The One who "knew what was in man (Jn. 2:25)" had already factored into the equation sins, both past and future. The I AM was pointing each one to his reasonable duty and service—to love the Lord God with one’s entire heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself. This can only be done in the present. The past is behind us, and cannot be undone. The future is equally beyond our control. The only thing that I can offer God is my entire self right now, and thankfully that is all that He requires of me!

The perfection that God has in view is not one that obliterates man’s humanness, but rather one that brings humanity to its completion, fulfillment, maturity, and finality. (This is consistent with the more developed meaning of the words that are translated "perfection" in both the Old and the New Testaments.) While the popularized notion of Christian perfection involves a certain "superhumanness" that is unobtainable, God sees just the opposite. He has predetermined that His own, through union with Christ, are to become huios--mature sons and daughters who reflect His image as His Word is formed in their flesh.

This does not suggest that perfection represents some higher plane of growth and self-improvement to which one needs to arrive at some single point in time. (In other words, it is not a case of, "Once perfect, always perfect.") "Perfection" is not a static condition of the heart, to be embraced once and then forever enshrined as the ultimate accomplishment of man, nor is it tied to any work of man whereby he can proclaim, "See what I did!" Rather it is simply the state of a heart that is fully yielded to and resting in the Lord, His purposes, and His plans. As such, the key to its attainment is the same as the key to its maintenance—to abide right now, and to continue to abide, in the Vine. If we should discover either now or at some future point that we’ve disconnected ourselves from fellowship with the Source of Life, He has already supplied us with the simple and easy remedy. We need only repent and receive His cleansing, thereby plugging back into Him once again.

God will ultimately have the perfection of His own for which He seeks. He is coming back for His bride, and she will be "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." In the meantime He is using His five-fold ministers—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—to equip and edify His saints for the work of the ministry, " . . . till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:12, 13).