We have this verse given to us....
Matthew 5:48
Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect.
And we have...
Genesis 17:1
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou
perfect.
And Christ Himself says....
Matthew 19:21
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
And then we have this...
John 17:22-24 King James Version (KJV)
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
And we see what Christ says when He tells the woman to 'go and sin more', and when He states 'repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'. So does it really mean to stop from sin and become without sin, to the state of perfection. Well, many will argue against perfection, but yet everyone knows that mans carnal imperfection or sin will not be let into heaven. And we have more, ...
Job 1:8
And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth,
a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of Noah:
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah
walked with God.
Genesis 5:24
And Enoch
walked with God: and he was not; for
God took him.
1 John 5:18
We know that whosoever is born of God
sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
So how is this moral 'Gordian Knot' to be resolved?
The single best thing a person could do to resolve the "Gordian Knot," is stop reading the KJV because the Hebrew in Job 1:8 and Genesis 6:9 do not mean "
perfect" in the sense of not having any flaws.
The deeper, rational means of addressing the issue of perfection is to understand the reality that
as long as a person is capable of sin then he or she is not perfect. Is God able to sin? I hope ever single reader of that question immediately, and without reservation or qualification answers with an emphatic, "
NO!" Assuming everyone did so.... please go back to the first verse mentioned in the op, Matthew 5:48. Jesus stated the standard, the goal, is to
be perfect like God. Be perfect like the
incorruptible God. Be perfect like the God who
cannot sin. That's not Noah. Got got so drunk when he got off the ark that he passed out so oblivious to the world that he didn't realize his son had sodomized him until he awoke the next morning! That is nowhere remotely near perfection or righteous.
Therefore, the if the question being asked is "When will we gain incorruptibility so that we may be perfect?" then scripture
explicitly states when that will occur. It makes the statement unequivocally.
1 Corinthians 15:35-57
35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” 36You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. 39All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. 40There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
42So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
50Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55“O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some will mistakenly protest the text states "
perishable," and not "
corruptible." There are two reasons why that protest is invalid. The first has to do with the fact Paul is
adding the "
perishable" to the mortal. A person is mortal
and perishable. In other words, the person is not perishing in a way that culminates in his or her physical death or physical mortality. This should be clear from the comment about the Law being the power of sin. Violating the Law does not cause sudden death. Disobeying the Law does not
cause physical death any more than Adam and Eve disobeying God's first two commands caused their physical death.
Disobedience caused Adam and Eve's sinful death, their Christological death. Violating the Law
by which sins are made known to the already mortal creature causes a person to be dead in transgression, not physically dead and unable to breath air, pump blood, and continue living. The second way for understanding this is not a reference to physical death is because the Greek word Paul used is "
phthora," a word that means decay or rot (
G5356). This cannot be a reference to the decay or rot the dead body suffers in the grave because Paul states the body sown is "
sown" a perish
able body. If he were talking about either the post-disobedient body
or the body in the grave he would say "
perished," not "
perishable." The already disobedient body is already decaying. The body buried in the grave is already decaying. The person walking around disobeying God is not physically dead, but it is rotting with every breath, with every heartbeat.
Therefore, what Paul is expounding upon is the post-disobedient state of humanity, not the physical condition of the dead body lying in the grave. Before a person is ever laid in any grave, he or she has been living a life of decay. Adam sinned because he could. God made Adam and Eve
capable of disobeying Him, capable of lacking faith, capable of unrighteousness.
That is part of the problem to be solved. That is why the tree of life was planted in the garden
before either of them ever thought to disobey God. They needed that tree to live. They were "
sown" in the garden as mortal creatures. Christ, the tree of life, was foreknown as the perfect sacrifice. Christ, who
is the resurrection and the life, was going to be revealed much later. Christ was going to be
revealed in the last time (notice how that phrase is conjugated in scripture). God made Adam and Eve (and all other humans) able to sin but God also made a means by which Adam and Eve (and all other humans) would be able to never again sin and be perfect like Him. They'd be
incorruptible., imperishable, unable to ever decay or rot after being raised from the grave. In resurrection, a person who has been saved from sin by grace through faith in God's Son will be transformed so that they never again sin. They were sown perishable, or corruptible, decayable, or capable of sin, but they will be raised imperishable, incorruptible, never again able tosin in any way.... just like God.
That is what Jesus means when he directs those in attendance to "
be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
This is an enormous task because perfection, the absence of sin, is measured in multiple ways in scripture. Most Christians mistakenly commit the error of "
onlyism," unintentionally thinking
1 John 3:4 is the
only verse that defines sin when that is not the case. There is no "
only" in that verse.
1 John 3:4
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
Compare those words to the following:
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is only lawlessness.
Inserting that word "only" into the verse runs into conflict with other places where scripture defines sin, such as
Romans 14:23 defining sin as any lack of faith, or
1 John 5:17's defining sin as any lack of righteousness (Gk. =
adikia). These definitions
cannot solely be references to the Law of Moses because faith and righteousness were standards of God long before He gave the Law at Sinai. Those two definitions of sin have absolutely nothing to do with the Law; the Law is a revelation of those two standards. God is all-righteous. God is ever-believing
and ever-faithful. God is imperishable, incorruptible, always and everywhere perfect in all He is and all He does.
No human will ever be that like that on this side of the grave.
Those who think that standard can be achieved by works will die in that sin of disbelief. Those relying on their own works will die with empty, worthless works that have no salvific merit. Those who think mere obedience to the Law will eventually culminate in a perfection comparable to God's perfection will draw their last breath in disappointment because it is only through the transformation occurring in the resurrection, when we are each raised from the grave, that anyone will be made imperishable
and immortal.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15
11For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test [e]the quality of each one’s work. 14If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire.
A
Christian relying on works of the flesh will lose all those works but still be saved. One of the truths they will learn in the transformation of their being is the worthlessness of fleshly works. Not everything built on the foundation of Christ will endure. Perishable works by a perishable creature do not endure. Corruptible works by a corruptible person do not endure. Only the works of God, even those works He performs in the corruptible creature will endure.
John 3:21
But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.
Believing in post-salvation works of the flesh is evidence of perishability, not perfection. It is God who is at work in the saint to desire and to work for
His good pleasure (
Php. 2:13). God did not work in Noah to get drunk, nor to get so drunk that he was oblivious to the ensuing rape. That is NOT perfection, and it is NOT something God works in His people.
