Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48

Of all the teachings of Christ, this seems the most daunting. Who of us can declare themselves perfect? Who among us is so arrogant as to dare to claim they have arrived at such a spiritual destination? Is Christ here telling us to do something that he knows is impossible for us? Perhaps. But, perhaps the problem is not with the teaching, but with the limitations of our language and our own conceptions.

In English the verb to be perfect is a very limiting word. It has a definite boundary and conveys a very specific idea. It means to be completely free from faults or defects, lacking in nothing. Perfection to the modern mind is very restricting. Something either is or is not perfect. It is either black or white. Something that is almost perfect, or is close to being perfect, to the 21st century American mind, is not perfect. (Ironically when I ran spell and grammar check on this post it highlighted “almost perfect” as being an error.) It falls short, even if it comes close. And, as the old saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

But, is that the idea that Jesus was trying to convey? That is certainly not the prevailing image of Christ that is demonstrated throughout the New Testament. It seems inconsistent that a God who insists on perfection should suffer the faults of his disciples and apostles so long and so often without giving up on them entirely.

The word Christ uses here that is translated “perfect” is τέλειος. While I am not a Greek scholar, this word seems to convey a much broader idea than our modern concept of perfection. It means – brought to completion, fully accomplished, mature, fully developed, complete, entire, whole. What is absent is the requirement that for something to be perfect that it must be lacking in nothing. I find that every interesting.

Horizon on Brighton Beach by Dominic Alves

Scott Cairns  in Short Trip to the Edge described the path of theosis (becoming like God) as “an end that turns out to be endless.” Similarly, Gregory of Nyssa in the prologue to his contemplative work The Life of Moses describes perfection as both obtainable and unobtainable at the same time. When we are speaking about the Divine Nature, Nyssa says, there is no end to our growing in perfection just as there is no end to God, who cannot be limited or contained. Thus, when we seek the perfection of the heavenly Father, we grow in perfection, but at the same time our growing in perfection never ends. The way Gregory describes it is that it “stretches out with the limitless.”

The only way I can describe it is sort of like the horizon. One can never obtain the horizon. When you think you have reached it you see that it has moved. You will never arrive at the horizon. That is the very nature of the horizon. When hiking up a mountain most hikers fall prey to seeing the delusion of a false summit. They look and see what they think to be the summit just a short distance ahead. It gives them great relief and encouragement knowing they are almost at the top. Only, when they reach the point they thought was the top they see that it is not the summit at all and there is climbing still left to do. It was only the hiker’s limited perspective that prevented him or her from realizing that what they thought was the end of the climb was not the end at all.  As Cairns says, “the more we become like God, the more powerfully we appreciate how far beyond our prior understanding He – endlessly – is.”

Perfection then, in this sense, is a journey with a limitless destination.  It is more about focusing on what we are constantly becoming rather than obsessing over that which we still lack.  Another writer noted that one can be a fully mature, grown adult and still be childlike in many ways with shortcomings and moments of immaturity. Perhaps then it also follows that one can be spiritually “perfect” (read here mature, whole, fully developed) and still have faults and flaws at the same time. Strange that I find solace and encouragement in that.

Peace be with y’all