Is God perfect?
God's perfection is not one item on a list of His qualities; it is the way everything true of Him holds together, in His nature, His works, and His dealings with people. The question then turns back on us: if He is perfect, what does that make impossible for Him, and what does it ask of those who claim Him as Father?
Perfect in nature
Perfection in the full sense is not shared. One writer states it starkly:
J. N. DarbyPerfectness, in good, belongs to God — all else must be imperfect because it is not God.
Part of what that means is proportion. In us, one strength usually outruns another; in God nothing overreaches and nothing falls short.
Frederick W. GrantAnd this is, again, in the fullest and highest way, true of God alone. In His perfection there is no preponderance of any attribute, and no defect. His wisdom must be equal to His power; His love equal to His power and wisdom.
What perfection rules out
A common objection says a God who cannot do certain things must be limited. One writer answers that His inability to do evil is not a shortage of power at all:
J. N. DarbyGod cannot be or do evil: to say this is a limitation of power is only a delusion. If I say that He cannot do what He pleases, for He cannot do evil, the "cannot" applies to "what He pleases," not to the power of God. As to acts of power, He can do everything. It is morally impossible that there should be in Him the contrary of what He is, that is of good and right. But this is not limiting power or anything; it is denying a limit to goodness, and saying it is absolute.
He adds that we should be careful about breaking God into separate parts. Speaking of attributes, he says, "in strictness we cannot speak of attributes in God (moral ones). It is only a human way which (speaking reverently) divides God into parts."
Light: perfection you can test
Scripture's own image for this is light. It carries more than brightness — it means nothing foreign can get into Him, and nothing escapes His notice:
C. CrainAs light is unchangeable; so is God incorruptible, untarnishable; it is impossible for any moral poison to come into His moral nature. No evil, no sin can ever originate or be in Him... "God is light" tells us that His moral discernment is absolutely perfect... If, then, His perceptions are unerring, His moral discernment absolutely perfect, His judgments must be right.
That perfection has a hard edge, and it is meant to be felt:
A. J. PollockGod is perfect. He is inflexibly just. He cannot depart by a hair's breadth from absolute righteousness. We read, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
Perfect in what He does
Because of who He is, what He makes and what He accomplishes carry the same stamp. One writer ties the perfection of the work directly back to the Person behind it:
J. G. BellettServices would be nothing; sorrows would be nothing; death, resurrection, and ascension, all would be nothing (could we conceive them), if Jesus were not the one He is. His person is the "Rock;" therefore "His work is perfect" (Deut. 32:4).
That same perfection extends to the way He handles a life, including the parts we cannot follow:
An Outline of Sound WordsStill, with all our learning of God's ways, we shall the more realise that behind all God's dealings there is that which is beyond all human understanding. When our souls in wonder reach this conclusion, how blessed it is to be able to say with David, "As for God, His way is perfect" (Psalm 18:30). Knowing the perfection of all that God does, the heart can rest in the sense of His love and wisdom, even if we but have a feeble apprehension of His ways.
The perfection we are told to copy
When Jesus tells His hearers to be perfect as their Father is, commentators are careful about what the word means there. It is not a claim that sin has been removed from the believer, but a call to a particular likeness:
The Bible TreasuryJesus Himself explains this passage by what precedes. This perfection consists in acting according to love and not according to the law of retaliation which says, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." It is the acting towards men according to the principle of God acting towards us according to the grace of our heavenly Father. There is no question here as to the root of sin in our nature.
The pattern is God's own even-handed kindness toward those who do not deserve it:
William KellyThe children are bound to sustain the family character, "that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust"... This text simply exhorts us to imitate our Father's grace, even to those who deserve His judgment.
Summary
- Perfect alone. Perfection in good belongs to God; everything else falls short simply because it is not God.
- Perfect in balance. In Him no quality outweighs another and none is missing — wisdom, power and love are equal.
- Perfect in purity. "God is light" means no evil can ever enter Him, His discernment never errs, and so His judgments are always right.
- Perfect in action. Because the Person is perfect, His work and His way are perfect too — which is why a heart can rest even where it cannot trace His dealings.
- Perfect as pattern. The one perfection we are told to copy is His grace: kindness shown to the undeserving, the family likeness of children of a heavenly Father.