Dear brethren,

Absolutely no human being in this mortal life, except Christ, is flawless. But we are saints, and never sinners after conversion. So, we are to go and sin no more so nothing worse happens to us (John 5.14).

Sin after conversion, therefore, will be a fluke and never practiced. We’re sanctified (made holy) by the Spirit Himself. And that continues for our entire life.

Love is not ishy-squishy mud between the toes. Not some sort of syrupy sentimental feeling. In short, love is obedience to God’s commands, pure and simple. It is never a burden (1 John 5.3), but does require striving to enter the narrow gate. True salvation is never for the faint of heart.

1 John 5:3 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep (guard) His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

They Walked Blamelessly Even In the Old Covenant

What does both the Old and New Testament record reveal to us as to how those saints walked this out daily? Fortunately, there is much evidence that walking worthy with a pure heart is the normal Christian life.  There were those who even kept the ceremonial law in a blameless fashion, even if they could not keep the moral law flawlessly.

Genesis 6:9  These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

Deuteronomy 18:13  “You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.

2 Samuel 22:26  “With the kind You show Yourself kind, With the blameless You show Yourself blameless…”

Acts 23:1 23:1  Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.”

Acts 24:16 24:16  “In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men…”

1 Timothy 1:5 1:5  But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Hebrews 13:18 13:18  Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

Luke 1:6 1:6  They (Zacharias & Elizabeth) were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

Acts 24:16 24:16  “In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.

Philippians 2:15 2:15  so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world…

1 Thessalonians 2:10 2:10  You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers…

2 Peter 3:14 3:14  Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless…

So, we see a consistent pattern of holiness lived out day by day. Again, this is truly understanding the love of God.

A Pure Heart Is The Norm

As a brief aside, we also see in the Holy Bible the Father left us a record that a pure heart is the normal Christian life…not a pre-salvation “deceitful” Jeremiah 17.9 heart.

Psalm 24:4  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully.

Luke 8:15  “But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good (pure heart), and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

1 Timothy 1:5  But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

2 Timothy 2:22  Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Perfect, Perfectly Mature, Flawless, Completed Can Be Interchangeable

But if nobody is “perfect,” or flawless as we think the Word might declare, then why does the Scripture command us to be so?

Actually, we see the Bible translations in this area are confusing to most saints, and in our opinion, in error at times. Not the original text, but the human translations. Having a perfectly good conscience while being blameless and spotless should be rendered “perfectly mature.” This is God’s command, His demand of us daily, His slave-friends, His body. Not flawless, but perfectly mature.

The thief on cross went from castigating Christ to defending Him after the thief’s salvation. As Christ promised him Paradise, he will hear “well done” and was perfectly mature in the very limited minutes he still had to live.

The true believer will obey God because He loves God from his heart (John 14:15). But a false religious leader like the evil Pharisee’s, and those like them, outwardly obey because they love the praises of men and wants to be seen by them. (Matt. 23:5)

Do you really, truly love God? Do you want Him to love you, and stay in your heart and not depart and be erased. (1 Tim. 4.1)? Then you must obey His commandments without practiced sin every day of your Christian life!

John 14:23-24a  Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep (obey all) My word (constantly); and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words (and We will not come to him and make Our abode with him)…”

Now, the main Greek word group used to describe this vital doctrine is extremely descriptive. It can render meaning as both a) perfectly mature, and b) flawless and/or fully completed.

This is a similar concept to the use of the word “love” in the Greek in John 21.15-17. Jesus asks Peter three times in he loves Him using agape love in the first two instances and phileo love in the last. Modern scholars seem to agree, as I do, that there is no special significance of the change in the third use. This is in accord with other uses in the Scripture of the interchangeability of the uses of love in the Greek.

Let us take a closer look now at being perfectly mature.

The first example in the word group is the Greek Word teleios, te’-la-os; adjective; having reached its end, i.e. complete; Words and Number of Times Used: complete (2), mature (4), more perfect (1), perfect (12).

The second example is the Greek Word teleiotês, tel-i-ot’-ace; noun; completeness, perfection; Words and Number of Times Used: maturity (1), perfect (1).

The third example is the Greek Word teleioô, tel-i-o’-o; verb; to bring to an end, to complete, perfect; Words and Number of Times Used: accomplish (2), accomplished (1), finish (1), fulfill (1), full number (1), made perfect (4), made…perfect (1), make…perfect (1), make perfect (1), perfect (2), perfected (7), reach…goal (1), spending the full number (1).

We’ll interchange the various Greek words above as examples of our point here.

Perfectly Mature Passages

These following verses indicate being perfectly mature now, not flawless, but perfectly mature. A prime example, again, is the converted thief on the cross who traveled from railing against Christ, to defending Him, and asking for and being granted salvation.

Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect (perfectly mature as a saved human being) as your heavenly Father is perfect (flawless as God)…”

Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete (perfectly mature), go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

John 17:23 17:23  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected (perfectly mature) in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Romans 12:2  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (perfectly mature),.

1 Corinthians 2:6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature (perfectly mature), a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;

1 Corinthians 14:20 14:20  Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be (perfectly) mature.

Philippians 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect (perfectly mature), have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you…

Colossians 1:28 We proclaim Him, admonishing (shaping the will with warning) every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete (perfectly mature) in Christ.

Colossians 4:12 4:12  Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect (mature) and fully assured in all the will of God.

Hebrews 5:14 5:14  But solid food is for the (perfectly) mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

James 1:4 1:4  And let endurance have its perfect (flawless) result, so that you may be perfect (mature)  and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 3:2 3:2  For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect (mature) man, able to bridle the whole body as well.

1 John 4:18 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect (mature) love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

Hebrews 6:1 6:1  Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to (perfect) maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

1 John 4:18 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect (mature) love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

Perfect and/or Flawless, Completed Passages

Let us turn now to those verses that constitute being flawless and/or completed.

1 Corinthians 13:10 but when the perfect (Christ returns) comes, the partial will be done away.

Ephesians 4:13 …until we all attain to the (final) unity of the faith, and of the (complete) knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

James 1:17 1:17  Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

James 1:25 1:25  But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Colossians 3:14 3:14  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

John 19:28 19:28  After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, “I am thirsty.”

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

Hebrews 5:9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

Hebrews 7:28 7:28  For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.

Hebrews 10:1 10:1  For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Hebrews 10:14 10:14  For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

James 2:22 2:22  You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;

1 John 2:5 2:5  but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:

1 John 4:12 4:12  No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:17 4:17  By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

We here at Walk Worthy truly hope this has convinced you that we are never sinners, but saints. And that we are walking with Christ as perfectly mature believers, “obeyers” in the whole counsel of God so that we are innocent of the blood of all people. This is from Day 1 in our new resurrected life as a “little Christ,” a “little messiah.”

And in so doing, we are acting perfectly mature, a lover of and loved by God, one who is innocent of the blood of all people by not shrinking away from the whole counsel of God, and keeping alert to those false teachers and false prophets who desire to split the ecclesia and draw away the disciples to themselves.

Acts 20:26-31a  “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men (people).  For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.  Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;  and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.  Therefore be on the alert…”

You, too, be on the alert at all times.

Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,

Marc

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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!

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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org