What does it mean to be perfect in this life?

This week, I will finish teaching a Sunday School class on personal growth. I have been struck by the fact that on about three occasions one participant or another dismissed the idea of perfection as a goal to focus on. I agree—if we’re talking about unrealistic expectations that induce anxiety and false guilt. We need liberation from compulsive perfectionism about non-essentials that generates self-righteous anger and contempt for self and others.

                  But I believe that Jesus had something else in mind when he said, “Be you perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” First of all, Jesus was inviting us into a magnificent destiny. His command implies a promise. In partnership with God, we can achieve Paradise perfection in the eternal adventure that awaits us after this life. 

Watch the 4:15 video or listen to the podcast episode.

What would it include? Would a single word, phrase, or verse be so rich in its connotations that we need no more of a stimulus to enter into the flow of humanly perfect living? Or do we need an on-ramp, say, a short list of our favorite spiritual truths? Believers’ answers would differ, but they would also overlap.

Have we tasted perfect moments or stretches of time? Have we ever simply catapulted ourselves into a wholehearted experiment of living in perfection on a walk home from work?

For the purposes of this blogpost, I will offer a longer on-ramp, a couple of edited pages from chapter six in A Taste of Joy and Liberty.

In first-century Judaism, a strong, balanced character centered in God could be described in one word: righteous. Righteousness was an umbrella virtue, including the other qualities of a good character. When Jesus was criticized for eating and drinking with sinners, he replied with a statement of his mission. “I have come not to call the righteous but sinners” (Mk 2:17, Lk 5:32). When Jesus referred to the righteous, he did not imply that these persons had never sinned in the sense of intentionally going against the will of God. But he did imply that they were neither lost souls nor rebels against God in grave spiritual danger.

I interpret Jesus’ distinction between sinners and the righteous in a way that appeals to common sense and is also helpful in thinking about our ethical responsibilities. The righteous were sincere persons of faith who did a humanly decent job of following the commandments and living responsible lives in their communities. This involved personalmoral standards and responsible habits in different spheres of life. These included trustworthy conduct in marriage and family life; honest dealing in commerce and restraint in the pursuit of wealth; consideration by political leaders for justice for all the people, not just the elites; and contributing in various ways to the religious community.

This idea of righteousness is not a humanly unreachable ideal of heavenly perfection, nor an extreme, fanatical legalism, but a quality of character that an ordinary person could acquire in this life.

Jesus’ approach to stimulating the growth of righteous character was centered on transforming the inner life. He taught, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”; and “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Mt 6:33 and 5:6).

Growing into hunger and thirst for righteousness

As the human Jesus grew up as a child and came to know God, he would have increasingly experienced his heavenly Father’s love. Naturally, he responded with love for God that grew to encompass all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength. This total love for God would have motivated his wholehearted desire to do God’s will. This level of desire I regard as the heart of righteousness. Wholehearted devotion to the will of God is equivalent to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

As these developments were going on in the inner life of Jesus, he would have realized that God is the perfection of righteousness. Then, I imagine, one day, reflecting on his experience of growth, Jesus would have realized that he was becoming more like God. This would have made him very happy.

Realizing righteousness as a gift

I imagine the young Jesus putting forth effort to become like God and discovering that his Father was increasingly fulfilling his great desire.

It is easy to imagine that, beginning sometime during his years in the local synagogue, Jesus cherished these words from Second Isaiah: “My soul shall rejoice in the love of my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with the robe of his righteousness” (Is 61:10). The prophet implies that righteousness is not acquired by dutiful determination and grit. It is, above all, a gift. As the young Jesus pursued the ideals of the character of God, it is possible that he could have put forth effort and discovered that “God gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). Jesus was beginning the happy process of being filled with righteousness by his heavenly Father.

Integrating heavenly and earthly ideals with what is possible in this life

The human Jesus learned to live the will of God on earth as in heaven. We can, too. As we grow up to be like our Parent, we make decisions to do God’s will of love by doing good to others. Ideally, this requires a wise integration of good knowledge of others and their situation, plus an awareness of the spiritual values that the situation calls for.

Jesus was continually expanding his knowledge of other people and the ever-changing circumstances of his time and place. And he attained an extraordinary awareness of divine values. His wisdom could often quickly connect his knowledge of relevant facts with the spiritual values that God wanted to actualize.

Consider an example. A person is driving on a highway and sees two cars on the side of the road that have evidently been involved in an accident. The driver sees the fact, intuits the cause, and spontaneously pulls over to help. The decision and action respond to the possible needs of those involved for mechanical, medical, psychological, or spiritual values. Drivers are not expected to have the scientific knowledge of a medic. But they might carry a small pack of first aid supplies in the car. Or carry a list of useful phone numbers. Or simply be a friend to someone who is shaken and in need of reassurance.

As we pick up tips and learn from experience and study about the material and spiritual dimensions of life, we automatically make adjustments, usually small ones, in our perspective, decisions, and actions. We combine scientific realism and spiritual idealism unconsciously.

The integrated virtue of righteous character has no definable threshold of how much scientific knowledge, spiritual realization, and philosophical wisdom are required. There are no flags waving at the finish line. But a certain habit of living begins to settle in. In every arena of our lives (home, school, work, and more), we make and carry out decisions that increasingly unite spiritual values with scientific facts.

This is simply one on-ramp to being perfect in this life. Please enjoy your adventure of the personal, spiritual, religious experience of becoming and being perfect.

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Two footnotes, please. This blogpost is based upon chapter 6 in Jeffrey Wattles, A Taste of Joy and Liberty: A Philosopher Encounters the Gospel of Jesus (Origin Press, 2025). This book won an Illuminations Book Award, a gold medal in the category of Christian Living.

The image is a reproduction of a photo of Jesus given to me by Diane Labrecque. She included this explanation. “Many were those who, seeing Brother Elijah seemingly talking to himself, asked, ‘Who do you talk to? What do you see?’ Tired of all these questions, Brother Elijah referred them to Jesus. In answer, Jesus sent Brother Elijah to photograph a white wall in a nearby church. Brother Elijah took 36 photos of the white wall. All came out white except a unique negative that has produced this photo.”