In Matthew 5:48 Jesus commanded his followers, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” So the question is, “Can a Christian be perfect?” The simple answer is, “Yes!” Jesus’s clear command is for us to be perfect. He’s not going to command his people to do something that they are not capable of doing. But not only is perfection possible, it is also the standard at which we must continually live as Christians. Perfection is possible, yes, but it is also the requirement. Anything less than perfection is unacceptable to God. The key idea in this article is understanding what is meant by perfection. It is clear that Jesus taught perfection, so let’s say it like it is, and then strive to come to a balanced understanding of what he means. 

Some people wrongly teach that a Christian can arrive at a state of spiritual maturity where they will never sin again, but this is an extreme, unbiblical position. We live in a fallen world, filled with wickedness, and we – though saints of the most High – still reside in fallen, fleshly bodies. As Christians we are washed in the blood of the Lamb, Amen! But our “feet get dirty” as we walk through this life and need to be washed often (John 13). Even the most godly Christians on the planet find themselves continually in this struggle between the flesh and the Spirit. In fact, it often seems the more holy a person truly is, the more unholy they feel, because they have a heightened sensitivity to the enormous standard of absolute holiness and perfection that God dwells in, and also their own spiritual weaknesses. 

But then there is another extreme, I believe, which is to lower the standard away from perfection, and conceive that God’s expectation for the Christian is just a little better than the world, or to live up to what the church or your family or friends expect. The misconception runs like this: “Perfection? Well, no one is going to be able to do that,” and then the person moves on without clearly defining how holy we need to be in order to please God. This is an error and has negative consequences as well as extreme forms of “Christian Perfectionism.” If the Christian doesn’t have a clear standard then they are going to make their own- what they think is holy enough – which is inevitably going to be less holy than the standard. So let’s see if we can arrive at a balanced, Biblical understanding of this topic…

What is the Standard? 

I want to press a little more on this, because I think many Christians are not willing to confess that perfection is the standard. Jesus said, “Be perfect,” so if that doesn’t mean perfection then what does it mean? Consider also 1 Peter 1:14-16 which says, “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” Here, the apostle Peter reminds us of God’s Law that we are to be holy as God is holy. Now, how holy is God? God is totally holy. So, again, the standard is absolute purity – a life in total dedication and consecration to God – anything less is sinful and unacceptable to God…Do you believe this? If we want to be right with God, we must make sure that we are doing and being what he says. Don’t be afraid of how some people abuse a doctrine. Confess it, open your heart, and ask God to teach you. 

How are we to understand Perfection? 

We know from all over Scripture that true righteousness is not attained by works or human effort, but rather by faith. The unbeliever must first recognize that they have already sinned and are worthy of Hell; that God’s standard for justification, for union with God, and for acceptance into heaven is total purity; and then they must realize that the only way to achieve that level of righteousness is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It must be a righteousness that is not their own, an imputed righteousness (a righteousness that is applied to their moral account by someone outside of themselves). So righteousness, holiness, perfection and related qualities are NOT to be seen as achieved through human effort (at least not our own effort, but rather Jesus’s effort). We must understand Jesus’ teachings on Perfection in light of this fuller, more fundamental teaching of Scripture, about the way of righteousness & holiness – that of faith. Following Jesus’ command to “be perfect” does not mean that I am never going to sin again. What it does mean is that whenever I do sin, I quickly and humbly confess that sin to God and ask for cleansing with gratefulness to Jesus Christ for his all-sufficient blood that was shed for that sin. This is the foundation of perfection – having a broken heart about your sins, moment by moment; walking humbly with your God; not making any excuses for your sins, but quickly acknowledging and confessing. We could call this imputed holiness. It is a holiness, or perfection that comes to us from outside of ourselves. Yes, it does change us, but there is also an immediate sanctification that comes when a Christian is broken and repenting of their sins. 

Other ways that the word “perfect” in the New Testament could be translated would be that of “maturity” or “completeness.” This is helpful, because we can say that someone is mature, even though we know that in some way, shape or form they probably have some kinds of “imperfections” in their life. But, it may be objected, the standard is perfection from God’s perspective, not man’s perspective. I agree, and I think we’re getting at the heart of something here. There is at least some sense in which we can say that God would consider someone spiritually mature, even though He clearly knows that they are flesh and bones- weak and faulty, and will forever be less than God Himself. Perfection cannot mean equality with God in all of His divine attributes – or else we would be God! So, in what way would it be proper for God to see a man as being “mature” or “complete” even though he has imperfections, as compared with God?

King David

We remember verses in the Bible like the following, “and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.” (1 Kings 15:3) God used David’s life as a standard or ruler by which to measure the success or failure of the kings that followed him. Buuuut, we know that David wasn’t all that great, on more than one occasion. So in what sense did God consider David a perfect man? What God was really looking for (perfection) was not that David would never sin, but rather that David was a man after God’s own heart. David loved God with all of his heart, and wanted to please Him more than anything else – and God could see that in him! Additionally, when David sinned and he was confronted about it, how did he respond? Just read Psalm 51 – David’s Psalm of Repentance. In this Psalm we find this powerful and related verse: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalms 51:17) God is not looking for people who He knows will never sin again. He is looking for people who never want to sin again, and for Christian who, when they sin, readily and humbly confess those sins. Perfection is not being a spiritual machine that constantly is on their knees praying, serving the poor, loving their wife, teaching their kids, displaying kindness and compassion, preaching a sermon, and working diligently at work all at the same time! Of course I am exaggerating, but there are some people (maybe even yourself) who live under a weight of thinking that God will only be happy with them if they were as powerful, wise, and industrious as God Himself is! 

As A Man Thinketh In His Heart So Is He

If we live this kind of life – a life where our heart’s desire is to wholeheartedly please God, and then when we find ourselves overwhelmed by sin and we quickly repent – what do you think is going to be the trajectory of that person’s spiritual life? Are they going to be thriving spiritually, or be wilting? Are they going to sin more or sin less as time goes on? We are never going to arrive at a perpetually and permanently sinless condition (not on this side of the grave anyway), but if we have a perfect heart towards God we will sin less.  

I also want to mention that we have to keep in mind the Biblical doctrine of Progressive Sanctification – which is the idea that when we are Born Again, we are not immediately, in every way totally perfected. Our standing with God is that of perfection (positional righteousness), but practically, the New Birth is just the beginning of a new spiritual life and relationship with God, in which we must grow spiritually. There are new Chrisitans, who know little of the Word, who must be weaned on the milk first. But the main thing to point out is that this idea of being perfect or not, in practice, begins at day one. Is the new believer obeying what they know? They may know little, and have little experience, but are they being faithful to God according to what they know? If so, they are walking perfectly before God. Contrarily, if an old timer in the faith is not walking humbly; has perhaps allowed some strongholds to form into his life; and has developed the ability to be somewhat calloused to it – this brother is not walking perfectly with God. He may be actually stronger than the newborn Christian in many areas of life, because of knowledge and experience, but this brother is not pleasing God as well as the younger, because he is not currently walking perfectly before God.   

God is expecting us to be sinless. Period. And the way to do that is by confessing any known sin, right now to God. His promise is that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) God is faithful. If we repent and confess, then right now, we are sinless. If we truly have a humble heart like this, consistently, the natural outgrowth is that the actions themselves are going to follow. 

I hope this has brought you some clarity on this subject. I don’t claim to understand this doctrine perfectly, but I have not heard much spoken on it from a balanced perspective and haven’t heard explanations that give a satisfactory answer to what Jesus’ idea of perfection is, while at the same time to caution against extremes on both sides of the issue. It is impossible to please God if you are half-hearted. He wants your whole heart.