CAN WE BE PERFECT?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5: 48
Can we be perfect? I agree that God in heaven is. But can we? “Not yet”, is my answer, “not yet”, because the Greek word translated as ‘perfect’, also has a different meaning, so, actually, we don’t have to be perfect. ‘Teleios’, the word used there, is the adverb of ‘telos’. A search in Google shows that: “The telos of a person’s life is the ultimate end they aim for”. I don’t know about you, but my aim isGod’s kingdom, his New Creation, where ‘perfection’ is the standard.
However. There always is a ‘however’. We don’t just, without preparation, transfer to God’s Kingdom. Our pursuit of perfection must begin now, in our sinful stage.
What does it entail?
That means that now, Anno Domini 2025, we must start that process, probe problems: “Explore everything and hold fast to what is good”, as Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 25. That truth, that eternal searching, is our life’s task, now and forever.
The plus side of this process is, that it gives rise to a state of mind in which our thoughts can wander and wonder; it encourages curiosity, is quite an interesting process, and fosters feelings, and out of those feelings can arise new ideas, so that we can dream and test out the new, and explore further.
Is that how Christians must live?
Yes, that is our task, our never-ending assignment, now and forever. There are only three certainties: God created, we uncreated, and Christ recreated, the rest is commentary.
Here is where we are today.
One of the mysteries I often explore are the Arctic temperatures. It is well known that Global Heat there has been rising faster than the global average, a feature known as polar amplification. Faster warming and fresher surface waters can change how gases move and how microbes work.
COP 30 is gathering in Brazil. Take note. Methane plays an outsized role in heating because of its radiative forcing, a measure of how something changes Earth’s energy balance, which IPCC assessments rank second only to carbon dioxide among human driven greenhouse gases. That ranking makes any methane system shift more than a curiosity.
Researchers noted that modern Arctic warming and freshening could trigger sudden immense methane explosions, raising world’s heating to unprecedented heights.
Already now: “Every minute somebody in the world dies, due to Global Heating”, claims a recent report. That translates into more than 500,000 of God’s creatures each year, mostly in the poorer sections of the world, where the responsible ingredients that cause Climate Change are least used.
In other words: We wealthy, automobile owners, living in climate-regulated dwellings, are causing millions of deaths in our life-times. That is Sinful. That dwarfs any other human action.
We await the new.
Antonio Gramsci observed during another period of upheaval, “The old is dead, but the new has not yet been born: In the interregnum, the most varied morbid phenomena occur.”
We now live in such a time frame, where everything is being challenged: truly a revolutionary era, which will end in the sudden appearance of the Lord.
In “Vrede op Aarde”, Peace of Earth, Dr. Stefan Paas – professor of Missions at the Amsterdam Free University – writes, (and I translate):
“Belief is no theoretical conviction, but a heart-felt and authentic phenomenon. It is not based on pure authority, but it is stimulated by life experiences. It is not mere participation in a movement or reliance on an institution, but it is a matter of personal choice. It does not lead to silent contemplation, but to responsible discussion. It does not result in passivity, but acts as a stimulant for a disciplined life.”
That calls for clarification. How can we become God’s children and inherit eternal life, not as zombies, but as inquiring, challenging, probing humans, worthy to be Christ’s companions. To be ready to diligently, ambitiously, leisurely -we have all eternity – explore God’s infinite creation, we must start that process now.
That requires a certain frame of mind, an attitude of faithful felicity, of openness to all and any possibilities, but mainly one of perfection.
Adam and Eve failed, because they were totally innocent, inexperienced, let’s face it: they bungled it. That can not happen again, even though everything today conspires to rob us of our full humanity: we, by and large, have become THE machine, which we so adore. Neil Postman, long ago, wrote “Amusing ourselves to Death”. Goliath’s Curse warns us today not to succumb to AI, while Paul Kingsnorth cautions us that THE MACHINE is unmaking our Humanity.
The obstacles are immense. The process to become ready for ETERNITY, starts now, means reorientation from ‘the spirit of this age’, to truly be immersed in the Spirit of holiness. Jesus told us: “Be perfect, as I am perfect”. To repeat: the Greek word used for ‘perfect’ is ‘teleios’, which is the adverb of ‘telos’, which means ‘end’ or ‘goal’. Our goal in life is the New Creation. Therefore: live accordingly.