Perfection

We exclude from present con- sideration the absolute perfection peculiar to God. Wherever the term is applied in Scripture to the Divine Being (Dt 32‘, 28 2251, Ps 185 197, Mt 5%), no limitation of its meni is possible. It is certainly significant that the Divine holiness itself is pro as a motive and pattern to man, Ly 118, 1 P 1, 1 Jn 3% Hence there is a close con- nexion between man’s conception of the Divine holiness and his conception of the holiness possible to and obligatory on himself.

The latter, however, is our immediate subject. The terms used in Scripture (ody, opp, τέλειοτ), being general and abstract, tell us little until defined by the context; and the context is the Divine law as understood in a particular age. Their connotation varies with man’s knowledge of moral and religious truth. The same terms are ἃ throughout the OT, and indeed throughout Serip- ture ; but their meaning grows with the growth of revelation.

Even within the limits of the OT the development is great. How much more does ‘ per- fect’ mean to the later ἜΡΡΕΙ than to the patriarchs! On NT ground the development is, of course, greater still. The perfect man in a par- ticular age is the man who realizes in himself the Divine law, or the ideal (ré\os) of man as known in that age.

Thus, inorder to give a complete view of the growth of the term in meaning, it would be necessary to trace step by step the growth of moral and religious ideas in Scripture. It will be enough gure to indicate the chief stages in the develop- ment. Speaking broadly, we may say that the OT idea of moral perfection is distinguished trom the NT one in three respects.

It is negative rather than positive, refers to outward act rather than to inner disposition and spirit, and may be summed up in righteousness rather than in love. It will be obvious at once that such a statement is to be taken with qualifications, There are beyond question positive elements in OT ethics, rightness of disposition as well as of act is required, love has a place beside righteousness.

Still, we think, careful examination will show that the negative, the outward act, righteousness, are the prominent, emphatic elements in OT, as the other elements arein NT. The higher, spiritual aspects are just mentioned in OT, and then reserved for fuller exposition till the fulness of time. t the earliest stage the ‘ perfect’ man is simply the ‘upright’ man in contrast to the ‘wicked’ (Job ])- 8 23 820 92 Ps 3787, Pr 27); in Ps 37 and else- where op and 7% are used convertibly.

The term is prone applied to Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Job in the same sense Gn 6° 17! 25”, Job 1}, although in Gn 17! ‘Walk before me’ suggests higher thoughts, as also in Dt 1815 ‘ Perfect with the LORD thy God’ does the same. In Gn 17! LXX has ἄμεμπτος.

In Dt 6° and Ly 1918 the two great commandments are definitely formulated, but they are nowhere expounded and worked out in detailed poi a (see Lk 1077), In a similar way the forbidding of sins of desire Ex 20", the requirement of inner truthfulness Ps 15? 51%, ‘circumcision of the heart’ Dt 30° (cf. with Ro 2”), preference of moral to ceremonial purity Is 1%, Mic 6°, Jl 2", Jer 318, Ps 17", are germs of great developments ; but they remain germs in OT days.

The growth in the meaning of perfection in the NT isimmense. The goal of the old economy ia the starting-point of the new. The positive side of the law is everywhere foremost, Mt 713.3..3 25, Jn 137 1453 1514 Ja 153: and often. Insistence on inward righteousness is just as marked a feature of NT teaching. This isin great the burden of the Sermon on the Mount, Mt 5°; the beatitudes are blessings on gracious disposition.

Outward obedience is too little, nothing but an inner transformation is sufficient, the roots and cla of man’s life must be made new, Mt ΤῈ 15'8, Jn 35. 5, Ro 85 193, 2Co 5", Gal 5%, He 9" ete, Above all, love, which is righteousness raised to the highest power, appears everywhere as the central law of life, Mt 5“, Lk 107-7, Jn 135, Ro 13”, 1 Co 13, Ja 2, 1 Jn 318. 3 47-11-16.

Bete, This substitution of love of God and man for righteous- ness involves a complete transformation of the Divine law. The two great commandments of the law are applied in detail to the different relations and duties of human life, Mt 5“, Ro 12", He 18), 2P 17. Such summaries of duty as are found in Ro 12 and 13 are simply different applications of the two chief commandments.

The distance we have travelled is seen in comparing the ‘perfect’ of the Lord’s words in Mt 5“ with the ‘perfect’ of the OT. The qualifying clause ‘As your Father,’ the context with its command ‘Love not merely your neighbour but your enemies,’ and the entire strain of precept in the discourse, forbid the fixing of narrow limits. St. Paul’s teaching in Ro 12°" is in the same spirit. The proposal of Christ Himself as the example of Christian life is very significant.

Not merely His teaching, He Himself is the law, the ideal of re- newed man, Jn 13%, Ph 2, Eph 4" 5 (‘Be ye imitators of God’), This suggests the further fact that the new, the Christian type of character is the one in which the mild virtues and graces PERFECTION 746 prevail, Mt 57° 11”, Jn 13", Gal 5%. 6?, Ph 28 4°, Col 3%. The apostolic payee and wishes for Christian Churches are full of instruction on this subject.

Passages like Eph 1169 3-19, Col 194, 1 Th 5%, 2 Co 13°, are the final expositions of the law of love, and show to what a height the idea of moral per- fection has risen. Nothing has been or can be added to the type of spiritual excellence there de- scribed. The two remarkable words used in 1 Th 5” may be taken as an inspired interpretation of τέλειος, namely ὁλόκληρος and ὁλοτελής ; the former occurs again in Ja 1‘, the latter is a dw. λεγόμενον.

The former, Ellicott says, ‘serves to mark that which is entire in all its parts,’ the latter indicates the ‘thoroughness and pervasive nature of holiness’ (see also Trench, ΝῚΤ Synonyms, p. 71, and Light- foot, ad loc.) These passages explain very fully the meaning or contents of the moral pertection, which is to be the aspiration of every Christian for himself, as it was the aspiration of the apostles for the Christians of their day.

The natural doubt respecting the possibility of attainment is antici- pated by St. Paul’s doxology, ‘ Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,’ Eph 3”, a passage which reminds us that the believer is kept absolutely dependent on the grace and Spirit of God for the beginning and perfecting of ail that is good in him, Eph 2”, Ph 15.915 Col 23) 1 P 18 Another line of phraseology, taken from human growth, sheds much light on our subject.

The perfect (τέλειοι) are the mature, full-grown in con- trast to babes and children (νήπιοι, παιδία). ‘ Every one that partaketh of milk isa babe. Solid food is for perfect’ (men), He 5 ‘Wherefore let us go on to perfection’ (τελειότης), 61. “Βα not children in mind: in malice be babes, in mind be perfect’ (τέλειοι), 1 Co 14”, also 2° 34. All this explains ‘unto a perfect (full-grown) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, that we may be no longer children,’ Eph 4%, St.

John has ‘little children, fathers, young men,’ 1 Jn 2315, «The τέλειος is one who has attained his moral end, that for which he was intended, namely to be a man in Christ’ (Trench, NZ’ Syn. p. 74). ‘In this sense St. Paul claimed to be τέλειος, even while almost in the same breath he disclaimed the being reredew- μένος, Ph 315?

(12,)γἨ, The apostle’s disclaimer intimates that there is no state of perfectness which excludes the ibility of advance; the full-grown man is still in process of growth. St. James also has the idea of perfection, 1" 33. It is encouraging to remember that this high teaching of Scripture has always been kept before the mind of the Church. Here again St. Paul is our leader, ‘Forgetting the things which are be- hind, I press on toward the goal,’ Ph 3%.

The question of the possibility of Christian perfection in the present life was raised by Augustine and answered in the affirmative. To doubt it, he said, would be to limit the power of Divine grace. But he doubts, or rather denies, that there have been perfect Christians, assigning as reasons the weak- ness of human nature, the danger of pride, the need of discipline (see quotations in Pope, Compend. of Theol. iii. p. 70).

e medizval and Roman Catholic Church holds not only the possibility but the fact in the case of ‘saints,’ canonization being the Church’s seal on the perfect life. The use of the term ‘saints’ to denote a special class of Christians is Eke rg iba as in Scripture the term is applied to Christians, Ro 17 and elsewhere.

he motive of the monastic system in its long history and multitudinous forms has been to secure favourable conditions for living a perfect Christian life, supposed to be impossible in ordinary circum- stances. ‘If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that PERFUME thou hast’ (Mt 19%), has been [6.1 to dictate th¢ condition of such a life, as it was the voice ever sounding in the ears of Francis of Assisi.

What- ever our quieras on the monastic system, the nobility of its original aims must be acknowledged. The great succession of mystics of the ἃ Kempis type in every Church and age has done much to preserve the tradition of a deep spiritual life. The passages of Scripture which are their watchwords (Jn 154, Gal 2, Col 3'*) have been shown to describe true experiences.

John Wesley’s doctrine on the subject merely follows in the wake of many teachers and communities whose aim has been the romotion of the highest Christian life. It is a CREE of relative perfection in a very strict sense. His own favourite definition of its nature is expressed in the terms of the two chief com- mandments, which he insists are an ideal intended to be realized in actual life.

His doctrine differs only in name from the teaching of all who desire and seek the highest life of holiness. In any case the perfect conformity to the image of the Son, which is God’s etern pulps (Ro 839), wnust ever remain the cherished hope of every believer in Christ. J.S. BANKS.