Sermon presented by Richard Kennebeck on July 27, 2013 in the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation.

 

Now I'm going to start with two questions today. These aren't trick questions and you don't have to raise your hand on these if you don't want to. It may seem like trick questions at the beginning.

First one is: How many of you are saints? How many of you are saints? Well I hope all of you are saints. Because a saint just means set apart, sanctified or to make holy. Unfortunately saint means something different in our modern society. If you look at Wikipedia, they define a saint as someone who is considered worthy of veneration for their holiness and sanctity. But that isn't really what a saint is. It's something that we don't declare as a saint, it's a true follower of God. A true follower of God, one who follows His way and lives by His way and His path.

Pope Francis just recently cleared the path for sainthood for two previous Popes. Fast-pathed them on to sainthood. But we humans can't do that, only God is the one who sets us apart. He's the only one that can make anyone a saint as we yield to Him.

Paul starts several of his letters to the early Christians by saying to the saints in Corinth, to the saints here, to the saints there. If he was writing a letter today he would say to the saints in Cincinnati. And he'd probably start saying, greetings, greetings to the saints. And he'd maybe say greetings to the Phelps family, who are servants. Greetings to Derrick and Rose Smith who are servants. Servants of God. To the Walkers, and to the Perkins, he'd say greetings. And to many others of you. He would say greetings to you. Saints of Cincinnati.

You know as saints, we keep God's law and keep His way. Follow His path. The path that God has given to us. We follow His way of life and live as Christians.

Now I've got a more difficult question for you. But I ask you: How many of you are perfect? How many of you are perfect? Now this may seem like a real trick question. Well, I mean how many of you are perfect like Christ asked and said we should become perfect?

That's what I'd like to spend a little time on today and that's talking about becoming perfect as Christ wants us to be perfect.

You know, several months ago we went through the Days of Unleavened Bread and we removed from our lives, from our houses, all the leavening that was in our houses. Everything that had leaven. Did that make us perfect in any way? The physical task of doing that didn't make us perfect. There's something deeper inside of us that needs to be made perfect before God. That's just a physical action, that's all that was.

Let's go ahead and turn to Matthew 5. When I asked you if you were perfect maybe some of you thought of this scripture. In this chapter of Matthew which is often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, it occurred at the time early in Christ's ministry here on earth and many of the teachings in these chapters right around this chapter are considered foundational parts of Christianity in our life, fundamentals of Christianity. Let's look at the very last verse of that chapter. In many ways this last verse sums up the Sermon on the Mount. It's something that many of us today think would be an impossible task. Something that we could not do. Matthew 5:48. Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. You know, some translations may say this in a progressive tense. Become, or you shall become, perfect. Something in the future. Whether it's in the future or now it would be a pretty difficult task to think about becoming perfect, or being perfect. You know what the odds of rolling a perfect bowling game are? 225,000 to 1. I bowled a 300 once. On my Wii. It's a lot easier on a game like that. If I bowl in real life I think my chances of a perfect game are 1 in 500 million, or maybe something like that. One bowler when he reached 300 in a perfect game, he collapsed. He couldn't take the stress of that. Another bowler was just one bowl short of 300 and he packed up his ball and he walked away, and never bowled that ball, and never bowled again in his life. The sheer thought and stress of doing a perfect game and missing that perfection was too much for him.

Now maybe we can't be perfect. What about 99.9% perfect? Now I think that's pretty good. I'd be happy if I got 99.9% on a test that I took. But you know if 99.9% perfect in the United States, 19,000 checks each hour would be put into the wrong bank account. Eleven babies would be given to the wrong family every single day. Fourteen thousand pieces of mail would go to the wrong address. In the world, 18 planes would crash every day. Inside your own body your heart would skip 105 beats every day. That's 99.9% perfect.

Now we're not told to be 99.9% perfect like our Father in heaven. We're told to be perfect like our Father in heaven.

Seems like an awfully high bar to reach and to attain, but let's take a closer look at what this word perfect means here. This word perfect; if you looked it up in a lexicon; is actually the Greek word teleios. T-E-L-E-I-O-S. It has several meanings just like our modern English words have. One is: brought to it's end; finished. Another meaning is: wanting nothing necessary to completeness. A third meaning is: that which is perfect. Which is what it's often translated in the King James Version. A fourth meaning is: consummate human integrity and virtue of men. A fifth meaning is: full-grown; adult; of full age; mature.

On the King James Version it's often translated as perfect, but it can also be, also is translated as: man; or a full age. The root word, telos, means: one who has accomplished the intended goal. One who has accomplished the intended goal. If something accomplishes a goal it was designed for, it's said to be teleios: perfect. A form of this word was used to tell if fruit was ripe. So, if something was ripe, perfect to be picked, it was considered teleios, or a form of that. 

Now that word teleios does not mean without sin. There is a totally different word for that. It's not teleios. A totally different word.

I'd like to explain this word perfect by using an example of an apple seed. Let's think about an apple seed for just a couple of moments here. If I described a perfect apple seed, what would you say it was? Perfect color, perfect size, the one that came out of the perfect apple, the one that the apple dropped the first fruit, or the last fruit. What would be a perfect apple seed? Well, none of those would be it. Because a perfect apple seed is an apple tree. A perfect apple seed is an apple tree, but not only an apple tree but an apple tree that is producing apples. Because that is what it's intended purpose is. An apple seed is supposed to produce apples.

Another example of perfection would be a child. When you've got a child, maybe three years old they like to wear your shoes and imitate you. I remember my little daughters at three years old. They'd come walking out in my big cowboy boots. And they'd be up to almost the top of their thighs and they could hardly walk. But that's a perfect three year old. They just haven't matured into an adult yet. They are doing what a perfect three year old does, a mature three year old. But if you have a 33 year old that is doing some of the same things that a perfect three year old is doing then there is a problem. They haven't matured. They haven't matured. And that's what Christ is saying here. We need to mature. To become who we're supposed to be. To grow and mature as our Father is.

I'd like to look at this verse in two different Bible versions because they bring out, I think, a little bit more about this verse. Matthew 5:48. The Amplified Version says: You, therefore, must be perfect growing into complete maturity of Godliness of mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity as your heavenly Father is perfect. And in The Message Bible it says: In a word what I am saying is grow up, grow up. You are Kingdom subjects now live like it. Live out your God created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others the way God lives towards you.

So how can we become perfect? How can we become mature as we're told to become? I'd like to take a look at a couple of points in the Bible where it talks about us maturing and becoming perfect. Just as Matthew 5:48 says we are to become, a mature, complete Christian.

The first one is: To grow in knowledge and wisdom of God's way of life. Grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God's way of life. We need to be continually growing in God's way of life and His wisdom. And I'm sure you've taken a trip sometimes and you were sure you knew how to get there. Now your wife wasn't sure you knew how to get there but you were sure you knew how to get there. And then as you go along further and further all of a sudden you start realizing well, I don't really know the way to get there. Maybe I need to ask, or plug it into my GPS or into my phone. That's the way it can be in our life. If we don't have the road map to get what God wants us, His plan, to fulfill His plan, we're not going to know how we should achieve that. So we have to grow in that knowledge, grow in the knowledge of His plan that God set before us, and set for us.

In Colossians 1:25-29 Paul talks about his labors among the Christians including the Colossians. Colossians 1:25, he says: Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations. But now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of His mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory. Him we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. There's that word teleios. To this end I also labor striving according to His working, which works in me mightily. What did Paul want to do mightily? He wanted to present every man perfect and he did this both through preaching a warning and teaching God's way of life to the Christians of Colossia. He wanted to present every Christian as a mature Christian.

The apostle Peter tells us that this process isn't something that just happens. Just happens overnight. Just happens suddenly in our lives. It's something that must be grown into. It's a process that starts and then continues and we grow into it for the rest of our life. In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter says: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever, Amen. It's a process that we need to grow and mature. This is a process in our lives of maturing that we have. We need to continually grow in the knowledge and the way of God and His way of life. We need to be consciously and actively pursuing, knowing who God is, what God is, what our plan is, what God's plan for us is. We need to know all those things and we get that knowledge through reading His word, and studying His word, and talking to God.
We don't want to be like the Hebrews which Paul had to chastise after apparently many years that they knew of the truth. In Hebrews 5 he had to chastise the Hebrew people because they still only knew the basics of the truth. They hadn't gone beyond that. If we turn to Hebrews 5:9 we can read about this chastisement that Paul gave to the Hebrews. Hebrews 5:9. And having been perfected, there's that word again, being mature, accomplishing the tasks or purpose that we're here for. In this case, what Christ was here for. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Called by God as high priests according to the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. Now apparently some had  stopped listening to Paul. Kind of like in the school room, in the back of the school, there's people, they're asleep, they're talking to their friends, whatever, but they're not listening to Paul, they're not growing, they're not learning. Hebrews 5:12 for though by this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is those who by reason of use have their sense exercised to discern both good and evil. Are you ready for solid food? Have you matured to that point? As a child, if you remember having children, you start out with milk, then a little mushy stuff that nobody wants to taste because you're sure, really is that good? Then on to bananas, then on to more complex foods, and finely on to meat. That's many ways that the same way we in our Christian life learn when we first are brought to the truth and God begins to call us. We only understand the simple things. We understand maybe the Sabbath. We understand the Holy Days maybe. But only at a certain level. As we grow in the maturity of God's word and His knowledge and His truth. We understand those that are much greater and deeper complexity and that's maturing in God's way. And in His truth.

A second point to becoming mature is: We need to remove sin and replace it with Christ living in us. We need to remove sin and replace it with Christ living in us. This is one of the lessons we rehearsed here on Unleavened Bread. Removing sin and replacing that with something else. Replacing that with Christ. He was our example of a sinless life. We need to follow His example. That sinless bread that He was.

You know we as Christians, we go through many and have to face many temptations in our modern life full of the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. We have to battle those constantly. It's a constant struggle that goes on in our life and when we get baptized it doesn’t just immediately go away. Those things don't immediately go away. Just like we don't immediately upon baptism understand all the mysteries of God's truth. Overcoming sin is a maturing process. We mature from a babe in Christ to an imitator of Christ. That's part of maturing.

Again, a lot of people don’t understand that God's forgiveness for us doesn't do away with human nature. It forgives our sins. The penalty Christ paid was for the sins we commit. Paul went through these same struggles. Same struggles as we do. The centuries of time between us, Paul and us, we read of his struggles, it's just been updated. Maybe now we've got more technology gadgets to be able to do these same sins with, but they are still there. They are still the same basic sins that existed back in Paul's time. Let's read of his struggles in Romans 7:14. Some of the struggles Paul went through. Paul understood his human nature and how deceitful it could be and he understood the struggles that we go through each and every day. Romans 7:14. For we know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal, sold unto sin. Paul is saying he is still flesh. He still sins. He knew his sinful nature was still there and he battled it, to overcome it. Romans 7:15. For what I am doing, I do not understand. The New Revised Standard Bible says: I do not understand my own actions. I'm sure you felt that way sometimes. You do something and you kind of hit yourself in your head and say "Why did I do that? That wasn't right." That's what Paul is saying here. He knew better, he did it. That doesn't mean he lived in that way of life but it was constantly there. That human nature was there. Continuing on: For what I will to do that I do not practice. But what I hate that I do. If then I do what I will not to do I agree with the law that it is good but now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me. Paul struggled just as we do. He lived a life that had the same temptations, the same problems, the same issues, that we struggle against. He fought the same Satan that we have to fight against and he overcame that. We know he did. And that's our struggle; is to remove that sin and to replace it with the fruit of the Spirit. To replace it with Christ. And what are these works of the flesh? These sins? If we go to Galatians 5:19 we can read some of these. Some of these things that we need to mature out of. We need to grow out of. We need to overcome. Need to be replaced.

Galatians 5:19. Now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contention, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, distentions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like. Of which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in times past that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. So these are some of the sins that we need to mature out of, to mature through, to overcome. But Paul goes right away into what we need to fill that with. That's the Spirit of God and it's fruit. We need to replace these with something else. We need to mature from these works of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:22 we see what we're supposed to replace them with. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with it's passions and desires, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. This is the walk that we have, the walk of the spirit. The walk of Jesus Christ indwelling inside of us through His Holy Spirit and these fruit that replace the works of the flesh. In Galatians 2:20 Paul talks about how his life changed, how he matured into Christ living within him. Where it says: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith and the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. This is true maturity growing from Paul to Christ. And ultimately that's what we want to be able to say in our lives. There is less of me inside of me and more of Christ inside of me. That is maturing to be able to say that. There is less of me inside of me and more of Christ inside of me. There is less sinful nature. I've matured through that with God's help and I've replaced it with Christ living in me.

Point three is: To become a mature Christian is learn to fully surrender to God. Learn to fully surrender to God. Turn to Matthew 19 with me. You'll remember this story as I introduce it to you. Jesus is talking to a young man, a young Jew who came to Him and asked Him what he needed in order to have eternal life. And Jesus answered him and said, keep the commandments. And the young man asked which ones? And Christ began mentioning several of the commandments. And the young Jew looked at Him and said, well, I’ve done this all my life. I've lived this way all my life. I've kept all these since my youth. What else do I need to do? And in Matthew 19:21, Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, there's that same word-perfect-that we saw earlier, 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. And Matthew 19:22 it says but when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. Christ knew what was in the heart of this man. He knew what the real crux of the problem was. The man was willing to do just about anything as long as it did not affect his life personally, his car, his chariot, his horse, his whatever he came home in each night after he worked. His house that he lived in. This man was looking for another action to do. Another action to do and Christ saw that it wasn't just another law, it wasn't just another commandment, it wasn't just another thing like that that he could do. This man was not truly ready to sacrifice and surrender his whole life. He wasn't ready to go to the next step. To truly surrender fully to God.

It's not a problem for us to have property. Or to have wealth. We know that's fine. But this man, Christ saw, had a problem with it and that's why He brought this out. He knew that in order to fully mature, this man had to give up and fully surrender and follow Christ, and this man was not willing to do this. And that's what we need to ask ourselves. Are we willing and ready to mature and take the next step to surrender fully and mature fully as a Christian. We need to learn to love God more than we love possessions. Not that they are ever bad, but there may come a time when we will have to give those up and we have to be willing to do that, to give those up.

The Expositors Commentary on this passage has an interesting reading on this. I'd like to read out of it on this verse in talking about perfect here. It says: What the word perfection suggests here is what it commonly means in the Old Testament. Undivided loyalty and full hearted obedience. This young man could not face that. He was willing to discipline himself to observe all outward stipulations and even perform some extra works. But because of his wealth he had a divided heart. His money was competing with God and what Jesus everywhere demands as a condition of eternal life is absolute discipleship. This entails the surrender of self. It wasn't just the surrender of his goods, it wasn't just to sell everything and give it away to the poor, it was to surrender himself and follow Him. So we need to ask ourselves: What does this passage mean to me? What does it say to you? Is there something in your life that  you're not willing to give up? For this man it was his wealth. That was the area he was not willing to give over to God. He wasn't willing to give up the part of himself. If we want to go on to perfection we must be willing to give it up to follow Christ. We must be willing to give up everything to follow Christ.

Point four is: Being part of the Body of Christ can help us develop maturity spiritually. Being part of the Body of Christ can help us develop spiritual maturity. Let's go ahead and turn to Ephesians 4:11. This is the passage that talks about the measuring the stature of the fullness of Christ and being knitted and joined together. But it talks about maturing too as a body, as a church. And He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Now we know that these aren't ranks but they are gifts that are given; talents and responsibilities. For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man. Here's that same word again, teleios. Perfect. Mature. Complete. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 

Now when I look at maturity I think that pretty well tells us what we should strive for. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:14. That we should no longer be children. That was Paul saying here that they are children. They haven't matured yet, as they should be, and that we should not remain as immature Christians. Tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into all things into him who is the head, Christ. From whom the whole body joined and knitted together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share. Causes growth to the body for the edifying of itself in love. Paul explains that as a body we need to mature together. As Christ is the head, we need to grow up and mature in the body. And the whole body needs to help each other mature, to grow together. Can you imagine if your body had parts that were mature, if you were six foot tall but you had lungs, still, of a four year old? Your body wouldn't be able to function correctly. And that's what we need to do, we need to work together and to grow together, and mature together and help each other grow and mature into a body. The body that Christ would be happy and proud of and grateful for. We need to pray for each other. Help each other in times of need. Encourage each other. Help them. Help ourselves to mature in the Body of Christ.

Point five is: Let trials and weaknesses build patience and humility which helps us mature. Trials and weaknesses build patience and humility which helps us mature. Let's turn to James 1 and read about this point in James 1:2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have it's perfect-again, there's that word teleios, mature-have it's perfect work, that you may be perfect-the same word, mature, complete, lacking nothing. Just as Mr. Phelps mentioned in his sermonette, we have to have patience as we go through trials. God's working with us. He has a plan for us. We need to be patient. But we know we are going to have trials and that's part of the refining process that we have, the maturing process. We often go through trials, and then we go through more trials, and we think, boy, can this ever stop? But silver, when it's refined, gets heated up, heated up and they take off the non-silver parts of it, let it cool. And then it gets heated up again. It goes through this process until it's refined and there are no signs of anything but silver.

And God uses the bad things in our life, and the good things in our life to form who we are, the person that we become. And to refine us into Christ's image, to be molded into His image.

You know, there is a little story by a lady named Judy Bowen about a vase that I think talks about this very well. It says: A grandfather and a grandmother were at a gift shop looking for something to give their granddaughter for her birthday. Suddenly the grandmother spots a beautiful vase. "Look at this lovely piece of work!" she says to her husband. He picks it up and says "You're right. This is one of the loveliest vases I've ever seen." At that point something remarkable happened. Something that could only happen in a children's book. The vase says to the grandparents, "Thank you for the compliment, but I wasn't always this beautiful." Instead of being surprised that the vase could talk, the grandfather asked it, "What do you mean when you say you weren't always this beautiful?". "Well," says the vase, "once I was an ugly, soggy, lump of clay. But one day some man with dirty, wet hands threw me on a wheel" which you heard about earlier. "Threw me on a wheel and then he started turning me around and around until I got so dizzy I couldn't see straight. 'Stop! Stop!', I cried. But the man with the wet hands said 'Not yet.' Then he started poking me and punching me until I hurt all over. 'Stop! Stop!', I cried. But the man said 'Not yet.'" He's maturing. This vase is maturing. But he's not there. "Finally he did stop, then he did something even worse. He put me into a furnace. It got hotter and hotter until I couldn't stand it. 'Stop!! Stop!!' I cried. But the man said 'Not yet.' Finally when I thought I was about, going to burn up, the man took me out of the furnace. Then some lady began to paint me and the fumes got so bad they made me sick. 'Stop! Stop!' I cried. 'Not yet.' said the lady. Finally she did stop, but then she gave me back to the man and he put me back into that awful furnace. This time it was hotter than before. 'Stop! Stop!' I cried. But the man said 'Not yet.'. Finally he took me out of the furnace and let me cool. When I was completely cool a pretty young lady put me on this shelf, next to this mirror. When I looked at myself in the mirror I was amazed. I could not believe what I saw. I was no longer this ugly, soggy, dirty piece of clay. I was beautiful, firm, and clean. I cried for joy. It was then I realized that all the pain was worthwhile. Without it I would still be an ugly, soggy lump of wet clay."

And that's the way we are. We have to go through multiple trials. But we should become that beautiful vase in God's hands. That beautiful vase in God's hand. But it takes time and we have to have the patience to go through that. That clay matured. That clay became something beautiful. So we need to make sure we take the patience to go through those trials. And sometimes even as we go through those trials we have difficulties understanding why.

2 Corinthians 12:7 we see Paul. Paul had a weakness. He had an illness. We don't know what that illness was, but Paul pleaded with God three times to be delivered from it. But God's reply in 2 Corinthians 12:9 was: My grace is sufficient for you. For My strength, that is God's strength, is made perfect, there's that word again-teleios, mature, complete-in weakness. God's strength, what He can do, what He can do through us, His power is made perfect, is made complete through our weakness.

Point number six: To mature in Christ, we need to learn to control our tongues. To mature in Christ we need to learn to control our tongues. So often tongues can be a great source of grief to both ourselves and to others. We say things that can hurt people. Say things to our brothers that could possibly cause them to be offended, to be hurt, to possibly even be led astray, or to leave God's way of life. James, in his letter, James 3:2-5, he talks about controlling the tongue. It says, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect-teleios, that same word that Christ said we should become-he is a perfect, mature, complete-man. Able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. Now we can continue on with this because James spends a little bit of time about this describing the destructive power of the tongue, but it is something that we need to learn to control as a mature Christian is our tongue.

My oldest daughter, when she was about four or five, she was still pretty young, but many ways she was a perfect four or five year old. But my wife was sitting with her at a fairly large mall out in California, and she's sitting there, and a lady beside the two of them lights up a cigarette and starts smoking. And we had always told our daughter you shouldn't smoke, but what she told the lady was, "God hates people that smoke." Now, we had never said that. Never would have said that. But to her, that's what she'd heard apparently, and she had not matured enough to know that's not the type of thing you say to somebody. And she greatly embarrassed my wife and and the lady beside her. And now I've embarrassed my oldest daughter. But now, she's grown into a wonderful, lovely, Christian lady who I'm very proud of, and she would not say that now. She understands, she's matured, she's grown. And that's what we need to do as Christians. We need to grow in how we use our tongues, how we bridle our tongues. And use our tongues for good, for encouragement, for the benefit of others, for help of others. Not to hurt people, but to grow in that to benefit people and encourage.

Now, that's the last point I'm going to go through today. I don't know if you've kept count, there is only six. Okay? My sermon isn't perfect. It's not complete. Some day it's going to grow up, get a seventh point. But it gives you a chance to look into this word perfect. And becoming complete and mature. It's like our life, it's a work in progress. God has a plan for us. We have to have the patience to see it carried out in us. That patience involves maturing as Christians. As having more of Christ in us than we have of us in ourselves.

Yes, we do need to become perfect Christians, just as we are saints. I'll leave you with one final scripture from Paul. 2 Corinthians 13:11, you don't need to turn there. Paul is concluding the second book to the Corinthians, and he says to the Corinthians: Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Now this actually isn't the same word. This isn't teleios. It's actually a different word for perfect. But this word, this Greek word, actually means to strengthen; perfect; complete; make one; what he ought to be. So it basically has the same meaning. Finally brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you.