The Believers Manual On Perfection

 

 THE BELIEVERS MANUAL ON PERFECTION

 

Here is another one of those words that can spark great debates, or cause much confusion in church circles. It is used in both the Old and New Testaments and basically has the meaning of someone or something being complete, or finished. Mature might be a word that could be used in reference to a person. Some of the confusion results from such statements as Jesus made, like "Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect". This is in the form of a command, and surely Jesus wouldn't command us to do something that He knew we couldn't do. So therefore it must be possible to become perfect in God's sight. During the Holiness Movement in the 1800s a teaching came forth that was called "sinless perfection" that caused a lot of controversy. Those who held to this teaching believed that a person could become so holy, or sanctified, by keeping all the law or commandments given in the Bible, as they understood them, that they would become "sinless" or without any trace of sin. You don't hear much of this term lately, although in some circles there is a teaching that goes by different names that sort of says the same thing. It may be referred to as "The Select of the Elect", "The Man Child Company", "The Manifest Sons of God", etc. All of these groups have a common root of becoming "Over-comers". The Bible does speak of striving to overcome sin, the flesh, and the devil, and it would seem that is not the position of all believers, or else some would not be singled out from the rest. Most of these groups that this writer has heard of developed a spirit of pride that rendered them useless in the Kingdom of God. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

 

A better term might be "Christian Perfection" instead of sinless perfection. In an earlier paper called "Blameless or Faultless" this writer explained the difference in these two words, and showed how we can be blameless in this life but not faultless. This same truth applies to the discussion of Perfection. It is possible to be blameless, if we are living to the best of our ability in obedience to God's word, but being found faultless, or sinless will only happen when we stand before Him in our resurrected bodies. If you are interested in seeing the scriptural explanation of the meaning of these words you might like to read the referred to document.

 

Sincerely

Dave Jamer  Revised on 18/01/17