2022-11-28 “as many as be perfect”

Philippians 3:15  “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

The contextual meaning of “perfect” is ‘maturity’; that is, no longer children in the knowledge, understanding, and application of the Doctrine of Christ.  Paul introduced this passage with “Let us therefore”; that is, those who are now “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,” those who are pressing “… toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).  Additionally, this perfection includes those who have been blessed to understand that the Law Service pointed to Jesus Christ and His Church-Kingdom and have moved on to fully embrace the Gospel of Christ Jesus and to worship and serve Him.  In an altogether different subject, with respect to our “perfect” fitness for Eternal Heaven, we are declared to be “just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23).  The “just men” are those who have been “made” “just”; that is, those who are “now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5:9); thus, “made perfect” by our merciful Lord’s Sacrifice on our behalf.  But, perfection in the Philippians 3:15 context comes as a result of Spiritual Birth (John 3:1-8) followed by praying, reading the Word of God, attending Church Services and actively hearing the Word of God preached and taught, and applying what we are learning to our lives.