PERFECTION
There is no prejudice against the use of
the word perfection in connection with human affairs generally. Who objects to
a tailor who makes a perfect fit for his customers? If, in a piece of cloth
purchased, an imperfection is found, it is promptly returned; if, in a tool a
flaw is discovered, it is replaced by a better one. The doctor does not suffer
in reputation by effecting perfect cures; nor does the lawyer in making for his
client a perfect defense. Why should any who claim to be Christians be
intolerant of the use of the word perfection in connection with Christian
character? Why should they deem it almost blasphemy for one who was on the
point of spiritual death, to affirm that Christ has affected for him a perfect
cure?
Instead of the Scriptures forbidding us to be
perfect, as might be inferred from the teachings of some ministers and
churches, they expressly command it.
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is
perfect." -- Matt. 5:48.
The phrase "even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," does not denote
the degree to which we are to be perfect, but the reason why we should be
perfect. Be perfect servants of a perfect God.
"I am the Almighty God: walk before me and be thou perfect." --
Gen. 17:1.
The Apostle Paul tells us that his object, in
preaching Christ was, not to encourage men to believe that if they called
themselves Christians they would of necessity be saved, not to build up a
society, but to produce in each of these a perfect Christian character.
"Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in
all wisdom: that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." -- Col.
1:28.
For this same purpose the truths of the Bible
were revealed to man.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
-- II Tim. 3:16, 17.
What shall we do with these plain passages of the
Word of God? Of course they can be explained away to the satisfaction of
worldlings and cavilers in the churches. So can any other texts that teach
doctrines, or enjoin prohibitions or precepts repugnant to the sensual, worldly
spirit of the age. This is done to a fearful extent. The cross is wreathed
with flowers, and instead of being the symbol of the maligned, despised,
persecuted religion of the man of Nazareth, it has become the symbol of
baptized worldliness and a refined sensualism and fashionable sentimentality.
The religion which takes the Bible for its basis, but claims the right to
eliminate from its teachings whatever is distasteful to the "culture" of the
day, is not the Christianity of the New Testament. It may adopt its forms, use
its language and claim to be its representative, but it is all a delusion and a
sham. There is not in it the one essential of true religion -submission to
God. Stress is laid upon what it is fashionable to observe.
We have no right to reject the words of the Bible
or the ideas which they represent and still claim to be Christians.
The word "perfect" is, then, a New Testament term
with a well defined meaning. We must accept the word in its Scripture meaning,
and neither reject it nor explain it away.
The command "be perfect," does not express any
well known, definite act like the command "repent;" nor any particular
experience like being "born again." It is taken in a wider sense; with a
greater latitude of meaning. It applies to a child of God in various stages of
his experience. A blade of corn may be said to be perfect in a dozen different
stages of its growth. But if, before it was ripe, it stopped growing, it would
not be perfect. So, at a certain period of his experience, a person may be
said to be a perfect Christian, and yet his attainments in piety be small in
comparison with what they are after years of toil and sorrow.
A young man leaves the district school for the
academy. He has studied hard and begins to reap some of its fruits. The
teacher, proud of his pupil, says: "He is perfect in his mathematics. He can
solve every problem in the hardest arithmetic." After three years in the
academy with a lesson every day in mathematics, he is sent to college,
recommended as "perfect in mathematics." He is well versed in algebra, geometry
and trigonometry. After studying mathematics in college four years, having
completed his course, he graduates with the highest honors of the mathematical
department. He then goes to some special school and spends perhaps three years
more in studying mathematics as applied to astronomy or to civil engineering.
Then again he is pronounced perfect in his well-mastered study. At the close
of a life of unremitting study, we hear him say with the immortal Sir Isaac
Newton, "I seem like a child standing upon the shore of the ocean gathering
pebbles. I have picked up here and there a pearl, while the great ocean of
truth lies unexplored before me." So when one becomes a Christian his
conversion may be perfect; when his heart is purified by faith he may be
perfectly sanctified; and still after years of growth in grace we hear him
saying with Job when he got a sight of God, "Wherefore I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes." Yet God had twice pronounced him perfect.
Hence the Apostle says of himself,
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect." -- Phil. 3:12.
Yet almost in the same breath he says, "Let us therefore as many as be
perfect." This implies that he counted himself among those that are
perfect.
We never read in the Bible of any being made
perfect by faith.* We read of persons being "justified by faith." -- Rom.
9:30; Rom. 5:1; Gal. 3:24: "sanctified by faith." -- Acts 15:9; Acts 26:18;
but never once a person being made perfect by faith. Quite another element
enters into the making of the saints perfect. "For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to
make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Heb. 2:10.
The perfection which the Gospel enjoins upon the saints can only be attained by
fidelity in doing and patience in suffering all the will of God. A
symmetrical, well-balanced, unswerving Christian character is not obtained at
once. When Paul, and Barnabas would "confirm the souls of the disciples," they
did it by
"exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must
through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." -- Acts
14:22.
We must not confound the perfection which the
Gospel requires with perfect love or entire sanctification. The Scriptures do
not use these terms as synonymous.
We are not to seek Christian perfection so much
by praying for it as a blessing to be received in an instant by faith, as by
"patient continuance in well-doing" We are to seek it as a well disposed boy
seeks a vigorous manhood by shunning the vices and overcoming the temptations
to which he is exposed, and by doing faithfully the duties to which he is
called.
We must not conclude that we shall by any natural
process grow out
of our imperfections and become perfect
Christians, without any special effort in that direction. Grace, in every
stage and in every degree, is from God. The prayer of Peter for the saints is,
"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ
Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you." -- I Pet. 5:10.
The Apostle gives a good example of the way to
profess perfection:
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am
apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be
perfect, be thus minded." -- Phil.
3:12-15.
The Bible teaches us that we are to render a
perfect service to God. Nothing short of this will meet our obligations.
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect." -- Matt. 5:48.
This is a plain command. But many err in
supposing that this perfection is one of knowledge or of judgment. It is no
such thing. In this sense God only is perfect. The perfection which God
requires is a perfection of love.
In many things we are necessarily imperfect, and
always shall be. But, by the grace of God, we may become perfect in love. Our
capacity for this kind of perfection does not depend upon our talents or our
circumstances. He who has but one dollar can give all the money he has, just
as well as he who has a million. I can love God with all my heart; an angel
can love God no more than with all his heart. The requirements of God are
reasonable. They cover only what we are, or what we are capable, by His help,
of becoming. Whatever our defects, we may have the
"love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given
unto us." -- Rom. 5:5.
When this is the case -- when we love God with all the heart, mind and
strength, and our neighbor as ourselves -- then have we perfect love. Not that
it is incapable of increase. As our capacities enlarge, our love will
increase, but as we now are we can do no better; and it is accepted according
to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not. If we have this
perfect love to God, it will be manifested -- not in words only, but in
actions.
We shall keep His commandments. Our study will
be to know His will, with an honest intention of doing it, with whatever losses
or crosses it may be attended. We shall ask, What does God require? -- not
what is pleasing to self or popular with the world.
We shall manifest our love to God, by acts of
kindness, just as far as we have the opportunity, to all of His creatures. We
shall take the greatest delight in those who love Him most.
"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar;
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen?" -- I John 4:20.
This is emphatic. It shows that our professions of love to God amount to
absolutely nothing, unless we love our fellow-men especially those who are
striving to keep His commandments. The charity that Paul speaks of in the
thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians, without which the strongest faith and
the largest faith and the largest gifts, and even martyrdom for the truth, will
profit us nothing, manifests itself in tender feelings and kind conduct towards
our fellow-men.
Do not profess perfect love, if you are
cross, unamiable, and unkind at home. If you have not natural affection, you
certainly have not supernatural. If you do not do as well as the brutes, do
not profess to be like the angels of God. If you are not kind to her whom you
have sworn to cherish, or to those whose protector nature has constituted you,
stop your professions at once. You have already sins enough to sink you to
hell, without adding hypocrisy to them.
If you cannot treat your brother, whose opinion
may not always coincide with yours, as civilly as men of the world treat each
other, do not profess perfect love. It does not require any grace to love
those who agree with our opinions, and who yield in willing deference to our
authority. Common sinners do as well as that.
If you are injuring your brother's influence by
unkind words and injurious insinuations, do not profess perfect love. Remember
that
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor." -- Rom. 13:10.
Therefore if you are doing him harm by talking against him when at the same
time you say that you love him, you show that at the best, you are
self-deceived. You are mistaken in your profession. You do not enjoy that
state of grace that you think you do. A little candid reflection would
convince you of this. There is always a care for the reputation of those that
we tenderly love.
"If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
perfected in us." -- I John
4:12
[Transcriber Note: Without desiring to be
hypercritical of this fine book or of its author, I make this observation: B.
T. Roberts' teaching on the subject of perfection, in this article, seems to
be somewhat muddled, especially in this and several following paragraphs. He
doubtless believed that "Perfect Love" was received by faith. However, in this
article he does not clearly distinguish the perfection of love from the
"perfection of maturity" received by perseverance and growth, or from the
"perfection of the body" which shall be received by the saints at the
resurrection of the just. -DVM]