The second paper in Miscellaneous Musings is On Being Perfect, a slightly edited version of which was presented at a Theology Colloquy held at Graceland College, Iowa in February, 1996.

The Bible contains a number of injunctions to be perfect, but for purpose of illustration, one should suffice.  From the fifth chapter of Matthew:

[Mat 5:45] Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 

[Mat 5:46] But I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; 

[Mat 5:47] That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 

[Mat 5:48] For if ye love only them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? 

[Mat 5:49] And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans the same? 

Mat 5:50] Ye are therefore commanded to be perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. 

And thereby lies a tale because, while the idea of being perfect “even as God is perfect” is an interesting one, this injunction to be perfect has probably done more harm than good, as J.B. Phillips (Your God Is Too Small, 1952) has observed:

“Of all the false gods there is probably no greater nuisance in the spiritual world than the ‘god of one hundred per cent’.  For he is plausible.  It can so easily be argued that since God is Perfection, and since He asks the complete loyalty of His creatures, then the best way of serving, pleasing, and worshipping Him is to set up absolute one-hundred-per-cent standards and see to it that we obey them.  After all, did not Christ say, ‘Be ye perfect’?” (p. 25)

In religious circles, however, tbis is known as scrupulosity, and it is considered to be a false virtue, and one to be avoided as an obstacle to spirituality.  

In fact, at any given moment, no one can ever be anything other than what he or she is.  That is, each one of us is perfect, a perfect product of his or her heredity and environment/experiences, the background that brings everyone to the present moment in time.