The demand for perfection is frequently repeated in the New Testament and has played a significant role in the history of THE FAITH.
In The Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus says to his disciples:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Mathew 5:48)
The meaning of this claim is recognizable only from the understanding of the human as the image of God
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen1:27)
And from the comprehending of Christ as the “Last Adam”.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (Col 1:15)
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world (But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12-13)
Believers aiming at “partaking” of the divine character, also points in the direction of perfection.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4)
In the early church, partaking in God’s being was a central concept of Christianity. “God became man in order that we become God”. Only the idea of perfection makes understandable a final enhancement of the Christian image of the human, the intensification from Perfection then transforms us as children of God to friends of God.
This appears as the highest form of communion reached between God and human beings.
May we strive to be perfect!
Shalom.
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AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST 