Has “Perfection” Come?

 

A valued reader disagrees with our interpretation of “that which is perfect” in 1 Cor 13:10. In our post The Miraculous Gifts we said the “perfect” stands for the messianic age in which we now live. Our reader says “this ‘perfection,’ teleios, to which Paul refers, is the eternal state, and exactly describes it.” 

He asked pertinent questions related to our view of “that which is perfect.”  One was, “do you really think that you now see him face to face?” Another was, “Do you … now know as fully as you are known?” Both queries originate in 1 Cor 13:12.

This reader also believes our diagram in the above post misuses Josh 5:12. He thinks it implies miracles ceased in toto after Israel entered the Promised Land. Instead, he says, miracles continued from the Exodus to at least Jeremiah’s day based on Jer 32:20.

He mentions another problem—fatigue. I responded to his initial comments. This prompted another message from him. At the end, he said, “weaving my way through your many contexts in the NT to prove your extreme interpretation of ‘perfect’ rather exhausts me, my friend.”

I am thankful for his patience, but this is not the effect I desire. My goal is to refresh the souls of God’s saints, not weary them. So, I want to revisit this issue in deliberate, incremental steps. 

The meaning of “perfect” affects an important issue of obedience. Paul commanded the Corinthians to “desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor 14:1). He meant the gifts in 1 Cor 12:7–10: wisdom, knowledge, faith,¹ healing, miracles, discernment, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues (cp. 1 Cor 14:5). 

If “that which is perfect” is the eternal state, we present-day Christians should seek these gifts. However, if Paul’s “perfect” meant the messianic age and things pertaining to it, then these sign gifts have ceased as a normal part of church life. We should not now seek them as the Corinthians did. 

Future posts will address the reader’s two questions and his observation about Josh 5:12. This post will make a single point: outside 1 Cor 13:10, the Scriptures nowhere use the word “perfect” (Gk. teleios) to refer to the eternal state.

The New King James Version translates teleios as “perfect,” “mature,” and “of full age.” The word means “brought to its end, finished; wanting nothing necessary to completeness.”² It occurs 19 times in 17 verses in the New Testament. We will group these instances into categories to simplify our analysis.

A quick point about inmillennialism before we begin. God established the messianic-age kingdom during the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. For one generation, these two ages “overlapped.” Christians were living in two ages at once. The New Testament sometimes addresses them as in one age, sometimes in the other.

God was about to finish this age-transition process. The Mosaic age would end when the Temple fell (Matt 24:1–3, 34). Jesus had established the messianic age during his ministry. It would continue beyond the Temple’s demise.

This was a unique “already-not yet” scenario. In almost all cases, the New Testament refers to the “not yet”—the messianic age—as soon to come. So, an “about-to-be” orientation permeates the apostles’ writings.

Let’s now consider the New Testament uses of “perfect” (Gk. teleios) outside 1 Cor 13:10.

Christians

The most frequent use of teleios regards individual Christians. It describes them as they existed during the transition period and as they continue to exist in the messianic age.

Ethics

“Perfect” describes the ethical standard to which Christians aspire. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that by loving our enemies, we would “be perfect” (Matt 5:48 NKJV). 

Jesus’s sermon was not a standard of living for the eternal state. It addresses our lives in the messianic age. It tells us how to seek “the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt 6:33 NKJV). “Perfection” in this sense is a messianic-age reality.

Status

Teleios also describes the Christian’s status. Before Paul spoke to the Corinthians about spiritual gifts, he said, “We speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing” (1 Cor 2:6 NKJV). 

The wisdom Paul conveyed to these “perfect” saints was not Mosaic-age wisdom. That age and its rulers would “come to nothing” in the Corinthians’ near future (cp. 1 Cor 10:11 NKJV). 

Some Christians were “perfect” (i.e., “mature”) during the age-transition period. This reality would continue in the messianic age about to come.

Paul also referred to “perfect” Christians in other letters. He encouraged his readers to pursue “God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” He then said, “Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind” (Phil 3:15). In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul said, “solid food belongs to those who are of full age” (Heb 5:14).

Paul taught Christian’s could be “perfect” (or, “mature”) in the transition period and in the messianic age. This status does not mean they would never sin. It means they would live before God according to the new covenant in Christ (cp. Heb 8:8–13; 10:9–18). They would no longer seek justification in God’s sight by works of the law (cp. Rom 3:20, 28). 

Christians need not wait until the eternal state to become “perfect” in this sense.

Goal

Paul encouraged his churches to pursue “perfection” as their goal. After speaking to the Corinthians about spiritual gifts, he said, “Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (1 Cor 14:20). This is a messianic-age (or kingdom) goal. 

Paul labored to move Christians toward this objective. He said, “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col 1:28). As we have seen, some Christians had already achieved this goal. It is not a goal just for the eternal state.

Paul spoke to the Colossians about another minister who had the same aim. He said, “Epaphras … greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Col 4:12). This brother wanted them to achieve this “perfection” in their lifetimes.

James also had this goal. He said, “let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (Jas 1:4). Teleios appears twice in this verse. Here, the second instance interests us. It shows James wished Christians to be “perfect” now. 

This orientation allowed James to contemplate “perfection” as a present-day possibility. He said, “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body” (Jas 3:2). Again, the Apostle did not mean he would be a sinless man. He meant this man would be living in full accordance with God’s provisions for the messianic age. (Paul described such a man in Rom 8.)

The Church

Paul distinguished between an individual and a corporate “perfection.” As we have seen, individual perfection was the goal for Christians in the messianic age. But he also spoke of “a perfect man” in a corporate sense (Eph 4:13). He wanted individual saints to “come to” that corporate man.

Does this corporate “perfect man” exist only in the eternal state? No. Paul had told the Ephesians God created this man through Jesus:

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Eph 2:14–16 NKJV)

This corporate “perfect man” exists in the messianic age.

The Apostle wanted the Ephesians to “put off … the old man” of the Mosaic age (Eph 4:22 NKJV). He wanted them to “put on the new man” (Eph 4:24 NKJV) of the messianic age. The new man was “perfect” because God had created him “in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph 4:24 NKJV). 

Paul said God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to bring individual Christians to this corporate “perfect man” (Eph 4:11-13). He did this so they would “no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14 NKJV). 

This is not a goal for the eternal state. Both the “perfect man” and the results of coming to him pertain to the messianic age. This agrees with the ethics, status, and goal of “perfection” for individual Christians we saw above.

God and Things Related to Him

God, his works, and his gifts lack “nothing necessary to completeness.” They are “perfect.”

So, Paul used teleios to describe the will of God. He said, “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom 12:2 NKJV). This perfection was, and is, and is to come. It is not reserved for the eternal state.

Paul used teleios to mark out God’s messianic-age temple. A previous post (here) discussed how the church has replaced the Mosaic-age Temple. It lacks nothing and is, therefore, “perfect.” Paul says it is “the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands” (Heb 9:11). 

God’s gracious gifts produce a “perfect” work in Christians. In a verse we saw above, James said, “let patience have its perfect work” (Jas 1:4). The Apostle desired this messianic-age result from the testing of the saints’ faith (Jas 1:3).

James also used this word to describe all God’s gifts to us. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (Jas 1:17). He used teleios to describe God’s new-covenant law. It is “the perfect law of liberty” (Jas 1:25). These things pertain to the messianic age. 

John also used teleios in a similar way. He says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). This “perfect” love operates in the messianic age.

Conclusion

Jesus used teleios in his conversation with a rich young man. The man asked Jesus how to have eternal life (Matt 19:16). Jesus responded, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matt 19:21 NKJV).

The Lord was telling the young man how “to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt 19:24). His entrance into the kingdom would lead to a blessed eternal state. But, the perfection of which Jesus spoke was a messianic-age state.

In the 18 instances we have reviewed, “perfect” (Gk. teleios) is not the eternal state. We suggest “that which is perfect” in 1 Cor 13:10 is not an exception to this pattern. This phrase refers to the messianic age and the things it comprises.

God initiated the transition from Mosaic-age imperfection to messianic-age perfection through Christ’s ministry. He completed it in Jesus’s generation (Matt 24:34). When the messianic age—“that which is perfect”—had fully come, the gifts of 1 Cor 12:7–10 ceased to be a normal part of church life.

Our next posts will examine (D. V.) some implications of this cessation. We will offer some thoughts on seeing face to face and knowing as we are known.

1. This is a miracle-working faith that can move mountains (1 Cor 13:2), not the faith through which God saves us (Eph 2:8). We could make similar statements about wisdom, knowledge, and discernment. Paul is speaking of extraordinary gifts.
2. Joseph Thayer and James Strong, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Coded With Strong’s Concordance Numbers (Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1982), 618.