Be Ye Perfect

When Jesus said, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven,” I take him literally. I’ve heard and been involved in many discussions of what the word “perfect” means in Scripture, but I always argue that Jesus really means, “perfect” even though I understand that the Greek word, teleios also means, to complete, finish, and in some cases, whole. I insist that Jesus means perfect because most of the time other people’s definition falls short of what Jesus intended.

I am reminded of a man I used to work with. A customer had a complaint about our products, so he had me do some tests. As he looked over the results, he commented, “I don’t know what they are complaining about, this doesn’t look bad.” I was surprised by his comment, so I looked at the data again and I said to my associate, “I can see why the customer is upset. What we gave our customer looks terrible.” My fellow worker said, “Well, I’ve seen worse.” I was beside myself and I started on a rant with, “Worse is not the standard! Anything compared to worse looks good!”

The reason why I like the word perfect is because in the context of Matthew 5, Jesus is saying, “Be like God.” It doesn’t matter if we use the word complete or whole, God is the standard.

Many of us have Romans 8:28 written on our hearts, “And we know that in all things God works for the good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Most of us stop here. Most of us memorize only verse 28, but fail to connect verse 29 with it. In verse 29, Paul goes on to say, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn of many brothers…” This is God’s goal. This is God’s expectation. Anything less than that is short of perfection.

“I could be worse” is a poor substitute for, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). We should find strength and consolation if we fix our eyes on Him.