As folks will undoubtedly discover I am not much for mincing words when it comes to things theological. At any rate, I do have a nice little shimmering moment from my daily walk. Last weekend I decided to go down to a local computer store to pick up a few titles from the clearance section. While checking out several $0.99 books rang up as $0.10 items. When I went home I told Kerri, "Getting some books, even if they cost me $0.10 a piece and are out of date, is still a great investment." So, Sunday rolled around and I returned with family in tow. I filled up a grocery cart with, what I later learned to be 41 books, and headed to check out. At the check out the floor manager came up to me and said, "I've approved it with my manager, we're just going to give these to you. We're throwing them away tonight." I turned to Kerri and just heard "Provision, provision, provision". For folks who don't know the somewhat obscure frame of reference, we always talk about God and how provident he is. I have been praying for unlimited resources and felt this instance was nothing short of God's fulfilling a part of this prayer. Upon arriving at the house, I proceeded to count the book's total cost had I purchased them new...it came out to nearly $1,500. I am still totally stoked!

The long tangent...

On another, more overtly theological tangent, I have found myself hearing the theme of perfection pop into my head a few times of recent. As an American I have heard, at least as an underlying, almost hynotic sub-theme of postmodern culture, the notion that perfection essentially boils down to flawlessness. Indeed, pulling a move from my college essay playbook, m-w.com defines perfection as, "being entirely without fault or defect". Along those lines, the synonyms, flawless, free of blemish, untarnished...any of these ideas point in the general direction that an ideal of "perfection" lies outside of the scope of reality. It is nothing more than an ideal.

"So what?" most people probably would point out. "What does this have to do with Christianity?" For Christians living in postmodern society perfection, as described above, conflicts with the Biblical concept of perfection. I tend to see many of the most undervalued concepts of Scripture to lie in the arena of concepts that are poorly imported in our modern mindscape because the original context gets lost. Perfection, as the Greeks defined it and Christ used it, refers to a concept of completeness.

In my trusty little Lexical Aid the Greek term, teleios is noted as a derivative of telos which, when translated, roughly means "goal". The extended definition reads as follows, "Finished, describing that which has achieved or reached its goal, objective, purpose, or limit; hence, consummated, complete, perfected, proficient, full-grown, mature." Nowhere in this definition does the concept of flawlessness appear. So it seems somewhere along the lines someone pulled a bait-and-switch with the word and the underlying concept.

Looking at Scripture it becomes abundantly clear that the concept of perfection as a matter of completeness instead of a matter of flawlessness makes a wide variety of passages clear. It also has implications we will explore after looking at the Scriptures themselves.

Perfection and sin can co-exist, contrary to popular mentality allows. Perfection, by today's standards, tends to encompass all aspects of life in an almost universal fashion. So, when zooming in from everything to spiritual matters, perfection, by today's standards would require no flaws whatsoever. By definition, God and God alone is capable of this. However, spiritual perfection, in terms of bliblical Christianity, doesn't directly imply this. Considering that perfection simply means maturity, and not flawlessness, it is possible for a Christian to have accomplished a spiritual end while being sinful. In fact, if it weren't for this, God could accomplish nothing through man since "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

Christ, as he used perfection in Matthew 5:48, aims to specify how we, as his followers, are to love. It is impossible, by the very nature of existence, for us to be perfect as God is perfect. So, we cannot take this literally. Once Adam and Eve sinned a division in moral nature was made actual and manifest. As a result, we are of a completely different moral order than God. Hence, the impossibility of taking Christ's command literally since this is impossible.

But, when I flip the coin, it can be read another way as well. Since "all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27) and by his grace we are filled with His Holy Spirit (Romans 1:4-5), God can work in us and through us to exercise perfect love. Being justified by this grace and granted authority to love fully, we are now able to reach the fullness of God's measure, the completion of God's end, which is the showering of his love on earth.

So, which is it? Are we able to love perfectly or not? Yes and no. (Every theological question gets answered that way in the end!) God's love is what allows us to be perfect. Nothing more. All we can do is choose to obey. That's the only thing we can claim in this entire process. So, being perfect, as Christ commands, isn't a matter of our own making, it's a matter of our own undoing. We undo our wills, submit to love as he commands, and, by doing so, can love perfectly and completely. Without our submission, we only love in part.

So, it is clear that perfection, as most perceive it today, is not a biblically based concept. This connection by no means condones or approves sin in any shape, form or fashion. Rather, the goal merely is to outline that we need to think of perfection as a more organic idea, on for which we are made to achieve instead of the unattainable ideal today's world would have us chase after forever. If we choose to obey God, we are called and destined to be perfect, though certainly never flawless. And for that, we can be eternally thankful.