Be Perfect    Wednesday night Bible Study   4/28/04

I. Examples Of Perfection

  A. Gen. 6:9 - Noah

  B. Job 1:1 – Job

  C. 1 Kings 11:4 – David

II. Meaning Of Perfection

  A. When we hear the word perfect we think of perfection. Not thinking a bad thought, or saying a bad word, or doing an evil deed.

     1. Phil. 3:12 – Paul acknowledged he never achieved perfection

     2. 1 John 1:8 –

  B. God commands us to always seek biblical perfection. When we fail we have an advocate.

     1. 1 John 1:9 -

  C. Perfect (Greek word teleois) means to come to full maturity, to be full-grown. We speak of fruit coming to maturity.

     1. Eph. 4:12-14 – “perfecting” – complete furnishing and equipping

     2. James 1:2-4 –

     3. Phil. 3:14-15 –

     4. John 17:23 –

III. Beginning of Perfection

  A. Heb. 5:13-14 – spiritual maturity can’t be obtained with exercising our consciences

    1. If we are going to be spiritually mature we must scrutinize everything in our lives to see if it is of God or not.

IV. Failure of Perfection

  A. Bill Gothard – our standard for growth must always be the character of Christ.

  B. Jer. 17:9 – the greatest enemy of spiritual perfection is a deceitful heart that does not want to give up the lusts of the flesh, the eyes and the pride of life.

    1. We have created a category in our minds of things we enjoy and we don’t subject them to God’s truth.

V. Fulfilling our Perfection

  A. Widening our sphere of love

    1. Matt. 5:46 -

  B. Greeting more than just our friends

    1. Matt. 5:47 – we need to greet all

    2. James 3:2 – the power to control our tongues and evaluate every word is a high attainment of spiritual perfection

  C. Expose all desires and activities to God

    1. Rom. 12:2 -

  D. Saturate our minds with the word

    1. John 15:3 -     

 ebHhH