Nobody's Perfect

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This is the 4th message in a series of messages regarding sanctification. This message addresses the topic of Christian perfection.

Written Excerpts:

Matthew 5:48 (NKJV) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. 

Introduction:

We’ve been speaking for a few weeks now about the matter of sanctification and what it really involves. I have been sharing ideas that I have gleaned from a book titled, “Called to Be Holy” by Dr. John Oswalt.

We have been trying to show that the NT call for Christians to be holy and to be sanctified is firmly grounded in the message of the OT and the record of God’s work with the people of Israel through the use of the covenant.

Covenants were very familiar to near eastern cultures.

The covenant God established through giving the law to Moses reveals important truths about God’s character as well as the people’s character.

Things that covenant revealed:

·     God is completely separate from the world that He created and He stands apart from any other being.

He can’t be manipulated through the world as a source of power and magic.

·     He is sovereign

Just like a king, He as legitimate authority to require strict allegiance.

Can stipulate how humans should conduct their lives in order to exhibit His own character.

·     God is gracious and faithful.

The Israelites did not deserve His offer or His choosing of them.

God repeatedly maintained His faithfulness and offered them forgiveness when He had every “right,” according to the terms of the covenant, to completely destroy them.

·     Covenant was never intended as an instrument for starting a relationship with God, but it was intended to teach the people of God how to live in a way that confirmed they belonged to the Lord.

In last week’s message we learned…

·     Covenant also revealed that humans have an essential defect in their hearts.

We are naturally inclined to rebel against authority and insist on having our own way.

God promised through the prophets to take away the stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh.

In other words, He would do a work of grace in them that would remove their rebellious, self-centered heart and replace it with a submissive and compliant heart.

Today, we want to take a deeper look at this gift of grace that God wants to provide for His people.

We will be looking into the issue of perfection that is addressed in both the Old and New Testaments.

Title = “Nobody’s Perfect.”

Cliché - universally accepted as absolutely true.

Often used as a “catch-all excuse” for behavior that we know is wrong.

However, I believe we can find evidence in the Bible that the phrase, “Nobody’s perfect,” is not always true. I also think we can discover that there is a “Christian perfection” that God has made available through grace and desires for His people to achieve.

Proposition:

The Bible repeatedly describes people that are in a committed, “covenant” relationship with God as being perfect.

After looking at some references where people are described as perfect, I want to explore the answers to two questions:

What does it mean to say something or someone is perfect?

What is the scriptural expectation for Christians regarding perfection?

I.                    Examples of people who are described as perfect

Gen. 6:9 – Noah was a just and perfect man.

Ps. 101:2 – I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way… I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

Job 1:1 – … that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

1 Kings 15:14 – …Asa's heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.

2 Kings 20:3 – …O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart….

These are some examples from the OT of men who are described as perfect or having a perfect heart.

All of these examples I’ve read from KJV, but newer versions almost always use different words other than “perfect,” probably due to our modern aversion to thinking that any kind of perfection is possible.

If you are like most people, you’re probably thinking, “What does the word perfect really mean in these contexts?” We know that it is impossible for anyone to live an absolutely perfect life, with zero mistakes, so it’s got to mean something different, doesn’t it?

I glad you asked that question. Let’s take a look at the meaning of the words that are used.

II.              What does perfection mean?

OT Words & Meanings

A.  One of the primary words in Hebrew is the root “tmm” (consonants only). (By adding various vowels around those consonants we can form nouns, verbs and adjectives.)

(Oswalt) “Five different forms of this root are used to refer to human behavior that is without fault…. Most occurrences of the verb [form] have to do with the completion of an object or a process…. But there are four places [regarding Job and David] where the verb is used of human behavior, and these show that the kind of completion being talked [about] is of a moral and ethical nature.

“In other words, Job’s behavior toward God is not partly obedient and partly disobedient; it is wholly [completely] obedient. In the same way [David’s prayer in Ps. 19], the person who is delivered from [presumptuous sin] will be completely obedient. Rebellion will have no part in his or her life.”

This same root word is used in an adjective form most often to describe sacrificial animals that are complete in the sense that they are everything they are expected to be; unblemished; with no defect.

(Oswalt) Does not mean they were “show animals.”

i.e. – it doesn’t mean that they could not be better in some way, or improved upon in some way, but they were entirely without defects.

We tend to think, “If it doesn’t win a blue ribbon, it’s not perfect.” Or, “If it wins a blue ribbon in a local fair, but not at the state farm show, then it’s not really perfect.”

But that’s not the meaning of the word. If it is all that a lamb is supposed to be, then it’s perfect.

Other uses and forms of this word indicate the idea of a faultless attitude or integrity and uprightness.

When Elihu tells Job that he speaks with perfect knowledge (Job 36:4), he is claiming to speak without false motives or deceitfulness. He is claiming a quality of knowledge, not a quantity of knowledge.

When David says that God’s way is perfect and it is God who makes his way perfect (2 Sam. 22:31, 33), David does not mean that he has done everything right, but he is serving God with the same quality of integrity as God has.

In other words, David is not serving God for deceitful or base motives but out of a pure heart of integrity.

B.  A second word used in the Hebrew is the root word containing the consonants “slm”. This is the word that the Hebrew word “shalom” comes from and is often translated as “peace.” It also has to do with idea of completeness, but rather than stressing lack of blemish or defect, it carries the idea of “all parts being present,” or “wholeness.” So “peace” carries the idea of complete well-being; everything is present as it should be.

This word is used many times to describe the heart of someone.

Since “heart” describes the center of personality, including discernment, will and affections, then a “whole heart” or “perfect heart” is someone that is undivided in their thinking, their will and their choices.

If you read about the kings of Judah and Israel, you will often read one of two descriptions about each of them.

1. “His heart was perfect toward God as was that of his father David.”

2. “His heart was not perfect toward the Lord his God as was the heart of his father David.”

King Asa (1 Kings 15:14) is described as a man whose heart was perfect toward God, even though we are told in the same verse that he did not perfectly perform everything God required.

How is that possible? Presumably because his knowledge or understanding of God’s requirements was limited.

In this specific example we find that being complete or perfect in one’s devotion to God and in one’s obedience to Him does not necessarily imply perfect performance.

So we’ve seen in the OT that the word perfect primarily means wholeness / completeness / undivided; or unblemished / without defect / all it was meant to be.

NT Words & Meanings

Don’t want to take a lot of time here, because the Greek words in the NT are very similar to what we have already described in the OT.

Two Grk words are used to translate the 1 word for perfect that was used in the Hebrew. The basic idea is the same, i.e. wholeness, completeness. It carries the idea of being mature as adults rather than infants.

But, it goes beyond the mere idea of maturing to adulthood. It also implies having become all that can be expected.

James 1:4 admonishes us to let patience have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

(Oswalt) Here it shows that it means more than just becoming an “older” Christian, it means becoming all that can rightly be expected of a follower of Christ.

The word often translated as “perfect” also carries the meaning of being finally brought to the appropriate end for which it was created.

There is so much more that can be stated here, but to save time, let me just say that it completely agrees with what we have already seen in the OT. = wholeness, completeness, brought to the intended level for which we have been created.

So we have seen that the meaning of the words used in the Hebrew and the Greek do not require us to think of perfection in the absolute sense, where no more growth or development is possible, but rather it’s a standard of motives and behavior that is completely what God intended it to be.

III.        Are Christians expected to be perfect?

This brings us to the second question.

Are Christians expected to be perfect?

Well, first of all let me say that many of the examples I gave when I was trying to explain the word meanings were people that were described as perfect. If God can do it for them, I believe He can still do it for us, and wants to do it.

We also have specific commands like the one in James 1:4 that we referred to, as well as the words of Jesus that was read earlier in the service, from Matt. 5:48 – “Therefore, be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.”

Jesus is obviously not demanding absolute perfection to the same degree as God. No, (understood in the context) He seems to be emphasizing the fact that God’s love for people is not mixed, diluted, or polluted. So our love should be the same kind.

One thing seems obvious, Jesus is not merely saying, “You must be mature as God is mature.”

Conclusion:

So many American Christians think that God is completely satisfied for us to just live our lives any way we please, and we are entirely comfortable to use the cliché, “Nobody’s perfect,” as an excuse to keep living a life that shows little resemblance to the Lord we profess to love and serve.

What I am hoping we all take away from this message today is that this modern thinking is totally unscriptural.

God has something far better for us.

(Oswalt) Such a life [of perfection] is still possible and it is still expected by God. It is possible to be perfect – whole, complete, undivided – in our devotion to Him, and if our obedience is … unintentionally limited by matters beyond our control, such as ignorance or imperceptions, it is nevertheless possible for a person to give an obedience which is perfect, that is, flawless, utterly without blame. However, that kind of heart and that kind of a life are never merely the result of human effort…

As we emphasized last week, we need the work of God’s grace to give us a new heart; a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.

How can He do it? By the power of His Holy Spirit. This will be the focus of our message next time.

In closing, let’s stand and sing the song that is printed on the insert in your bulletin:

Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God