It Is Possible To Be Human And Perfect Too – Part One

Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Mat 5:48.

The LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. Gen 17:1.

It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. Psa 18:32 

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me. Psa 138:8

God has reckoned that we are vanity. I think it is the Godly way of saying in few words that we are human.

He knows, and tells us so. That without Him we should soon turn aside and “go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver” (1 Sam 12:21).  

There is a physical perfection, and there is a metaphysical one. The former is to do with us. the latter with God. one transcends this world. the other we can touch and see with our own eyes.

Perfect implies: Without fault. Excellent. An ideal. Something that exists only in imagination. God though commands it. So it is doable. It can be achieved on this side of heaven.

Perfectibility is also a matter of attitude. One will say it is madness. Another will say “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” This is a Godly attitude, a positive attitude. The former is for the timid.

It is true Paul in Philippians could not boast he had attained perfection.  But he conceded in a double apprehension that it was something he was working hard to achieve.

He didn’t say it was impossible. He said he knew whom he believed. And that he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

Paul knew God. Not only knew but believed it was He “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom 4:17). Paul trusted God to make that which concerned him perfect. Do you? Against hope, Abraham believed in hope. “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith.” That He is faithful that promised. God made perfect His promise.

He still makes perfect that which He promises. Do you believe that?

Everything good flows from Him who is Perfect. It takes faith. And faith like grace is also a gift of God. The God who gives us all things freely will give it you if you ask Him. After that God in the Holy Spirit will begin the work of perfecting that which concerns you. You know it. let God also know it.

Therefore at the end of his life Paul could say with confidence, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Ti 4:7).  Paul might well have been saying he had done his best. He had his perfect.

We are not to be slothful though. We are not to say there is a lion in the streets. We are to work hard at that which we do until we come to perfection. “That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:12).  For “By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through” (Ecc 10:18). 

You may not feel called to know Christ as well as Paul did, knowing “the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” That was Paul’s ambition. And Paul achieved that. But don’t despise that which you are able to offer in the service of the Lord, however insignificant it might appear before men. To God all that is offered to Him faithfully and with a willing heart is significant. If at the end He should say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” then you shall have earned your perfection in this life. Work at it as if you would receive that reward today.

Perfection therefore is a mark we aim at. “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).

Don’t say you can’t make it. avoid procrastination. Perfection is not a preserve for the pedantic. Inculcate profitable habits, like reading.  Invest in good books, as Paul did and exhorted his disciple Timothy to do so: “when thou comest, bring with thee…the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Ti 4:13). “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Ti 2:15). “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1Ti 4:13). 

Don’t raise others up. While you lower yourself down. Everyone can achieve perfection in whatever field they are in, so long as it is good. “Now the God of peace… Make you perfect in every good work to do his will…” (Heb 13:20-21).

James, in a capstone, beautifies that which is good as follows: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jam 1:17).

Barnes writes, “No cloud, no darkness seems to come from the sun, but it pours its rich effulgence on the farthest part of the universe. So it is with God. There is no darkness in him 1Jo_1:5; and all the moral light and purity which there is in the universe is to be traced to him.”

Henry says, “So that we have nothing good but what we receive from God, as there is no evil or sin in us, or done by us, but what is owing to ourselves. We must own God as the author of all the powers and perfections that are in the creature, and the giver of all the benefits which we have in and by those powers and perfections: but none of their darknesses, their imperfections, or their ill actions are to be charged on the Father of lights; from him proceeds every good and perfect gift, both pertaining to this life and that which is to come.”

Paul in a doxology renders it thus: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1Co 10:31). To his glory means all that which will bring honor to God. That is always the road to achieving a Godly perfection.

There is a glory for everyone of us, if only we would search deep inside us for it. “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory” (1Co 15:41). Find your glory. Then shine. Don’t worry that it is not very bright. If it lights your path and you can see clearly the road by its lamp, take and carry on.

Don’t be distracted by looking behind your shoulder to see how everybody else is doing. Have a “single” eye, minding your own. Many “eyes” will blur your vision. Then you are likely to  stumble at noon day as at night.

We have learnt it is possible to achieve perfection. It is good to seek it in whatever we do. That we seek it from one who is Perfect, that is God.

Perfection is something intrinsic in us. We live it daily, though sometimes we are hardly aware it is its unrelenting force which is driving us.

When a mother has conceived all that lies ahead in toil and mind is how to bring her baby into perfection. I believe our own interminable and incipient good hungers are implanted in us at that moment as well. Unless one is born into royalty with title and glory already assured, the rest of us we shall have to work out our own perfection daily until we are gathered to our people.

Next Friday, Part Two. How Adam Blew It.