What does it mean to “be perfect”?

[Kan]

Kan, you make a great point, Love really is the bond of perfection, and the most important aspect of our christian walk, but I seriously doubt there is any human being apart from our Lord, who has ever loved to perfection. I agree that a life of love is a great sign of a healthy and mature Christian. 

 

So true, greater love has not been known. No matter how imperfect we are, a response of love to God means so much to Him.

[Sevenseas]

Kan, you make a great point, Love really is the bond of perfection, and the most important aspect of our christian walk, but I seriously doubt there is any human being apart from our Lord, who has ever loved to perfection. I agree that a life of love is a great sign of a healthy and mature Christian. 

 

 

Jesus said that believers would be known by their love for each other and that that love would make them one...it is the Holy Spirit in us as we do not have

the love of God without His Spirit

 

However, perfection here means being made perfect IN Christ....it is important to actually understand that, because we need a firm foundation; not something

that keeps shifting or changing with a mood or a different person

[1to3]

 

Matt. 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

 

2 Cor. 12:9 “...My [the Lord's] grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

 

James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

 

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.

 

What does it mean to be perfect? How do we become perfect?

 

The word used that says "perfect" is the word for "complete". We are to be made complete in Christ, lacking nothing.

 

 

 

 

I like that  WilliamL  brought up the word complete.

It has helped elevate my understanding. Thanks

[WilliamL]

I like that  WilliamL  brought up the word complete.

It has helped elevate my understanding. Thanks

 

Thank you brother, very much. Positive feedback is rare in these online forums, and it encourages those of us who teach to keep on keeping on.

[RustyAngeL]

I wouldn't have a clue what it is to be perfect, I am so far from it.  I only walk in the grace of my Heavenly Father knowing that my imperfections are covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus and I thank Him everyday for that.

 

Because He Lives!! RustyAngeL

[missmuffet]

We as Christians are not perfect and we will not be perfect until we get to heaven.We sin everyday whether we know it or not.

[1to3]

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalms 119:11

 

 

He is the potter we are the clay.

He helps to refine us as we desire to draw closer to Him.

Virtue that is not tested is not virtue.

 

God through His Only Begotten Son Christ Jesus helps to transform us into His new creation.Praise God.

 

Lead us away from temptation

and deliver us from sin.

 

God has not given to us more than we can handle.

react not to the devil and he will flee.

 

Seek first the kingdom of the Lord and His righteousness than all those things shall be given to you hallelujah!

 

Christ Jesus is the good shepherd.

 

He is the vine we are the branches

the dead branches are burned away

 

without Him we can do nothing

with Him ALL things are possible.

with Him, we get filled with His Love, with His Light, with His Holy Spirit.

we get transformed by His Love, Light, Holy Spirit working in our hearts

as we seek Him daily for our daily heavenly bread,

 

He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, Halleluiah! Amen! Praise God forever more!

 

He can heal sickness

He can deliver us from sin

 

-Isaiah 53-

 

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow

Because He lives, He has salvaged , delivered me

Because He lives, He forgives, heals, transforms.

Without Him, i would not be the person I have become through Him.

Because of Him, I have grown to understand more and more that with Him and in Him, I am His workmanship.

with Him, I seek to be more and more in the light and live less and less in the dark.

The work in not finished but it progresses as I desire daily to seek His ways over my will.

 

If I know scripture, but cannot practice His love

I have not understood.

Edited February 26, 2015 by 1to3

[Kan]

That's right 1to3,

 

The lame man to whom Christ said "take up your bed and walk" could have replied -"I'll do my best, but I know I will fail because I have sinful flesh and I know I can never be perfect, so I'll get up when I feel ready and can make a good go of it - hallelujah !"

 

If he had done that he'd never get up, but he took Christ at His word and acted on it, and immediately he got up and walked.

[Power Man]

All  the  Fulness  of  (the) Deity dwells in Christ  Bodily , and  we  are  made  COMPLETE  in Him.

 

Christ  is  perfect  in  us;  let  His  Light  Shine through us. 

[FreeinChrist]

Perfection I believe is summed up in 1 word, LOVE. Does that help you understand? Lol and to become perfect one needs to live in Christ, always

 

 

Isn't perfection about Love?

 

"be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect"

 

Be loving as God is perfectly loving.

Performances, acting, obsessive compulsive behavior, acrobatics, don't enter into the equation.

 

We can love perfectly, Jesus was counting on that when He came to this world, He had faith in what He has put in us - an ounce of faith. That's what perfection is.

 

Do 'mistakes' matter a great deal in a home where there is love? No.

Do they matter in a home where there is strife? Watch your every step !

Does a lack of love matter in a home of love? Very much - it really hurts.

Does a lack of love and hatred matter in a home with strife? Makes no difference, just helps it along.

 

So perfection has to do with encompassing the awkward and sometimes unlikable, and the mistakes, it is possessing a love which cannot see those concerns and just desires unity and unconditional acceptance.

 

God's love is unconditional. 

 

It's interesting that perfection in the scriptures is talked more often in the context of the unity of the saints, which proves that being perfect as an individual does not really occur without the unifying love with the saints. Perfection of the body of Christ. 

When the disciples came together confessing their faults and repenting, and unifying, then they became filled with the Holy Spirit.

To love fellow man without reserve, unconditionally, is the sign of a perfect life. And how would one know that about themselves, when all they feel is a hunger to be able to express better love to others?

 

 

Kan, you make a great point, Love really is the bond of perfection, and the most important aspect of our christian walk, but I seriously doubt there is any human being apart from our Lord, who has ever loved to perfection. I agree that a life of love is a great sign of a healthy and mature Christian. 

 

Amen ^ to everything above.

 

And above all these things put on the  charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

Colossians 3:14

Charity here is another way of saying love.  This is the love of God given to us by the Holy Spirit indwelling, Romans 5:5; I Peter 1:22-23.  Probably why Christ say by love we would be known as His disciples, John 13:34-35.

 

And as pretty near everyone else has said we are perfected in Christ Jesus; II Corinthians 5:21, I Peter 3:18.