Some years ago my husband invited a friend of ours to come for dinner. This friend, we will call Bill, was going through a divorce and rarely had home cooked meals. Bill identified himself as an agnostic. He was leaning toward Hinduism and had studied that religion a bit. He knew where we stood for we had discussed the claims of Christianity a few times over the years.
He called Christianity a 'bloody religion' and that notion had turned him off to the Gospel. Now, he was looking into the Vedas for truth. During our conversation that evening he brought up the verse in Matthew 5:48 which states that we are to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect and correctly pointed out the fact that we were not perfect. He had seen the imperfections in us over the years and knew we were not perfect. The conversation ended there, because we had no answer to that point.
I was caught up short, and it brought to my attention my need to study what Jesus meant in that statement. Words are so important because of the meaning of each one. I looked up 'perfect' and found that in that verse, it meant - complete or whole and Jesus was pointing out our condition of brokenness without Him and in Him, we are complete or whole. In God's sight, which it the most important sight, we are perfect when we are in Jesus. I had been understanding the word just like Bill had been and had no help for him at that time, but his statement and my consternation with myself caused me to study and prepared me to be able to give an answer in the future. I can now say with confidence, I am perfect.
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