This morning I began reading the book "Love Made
Perfect: Foundations for the Holy Life" by the late William Greathouse
(former pastor, theologian, professor, and leader in the Church of the
Nazarene). I came across a quote by Adam Clarke that I want to share. Here it is:
"As God requires every man to
love with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbour as
himself; then he is a perfect man that does so; he answers the need for
which God made him."
We often balk at the term "perfect"
but in this case it is correct. Let me explain. In the New Testament the
word "perfect" (in the Greek, teleios, a form of the word telos which
means "end" or "intended purpose") refers to that which "answers to its
true end", that which fulfills its purpose.
I encourage you to seek to be a person who
is perfect in the biblical sense of the word, a person who "answers the
need for which God made him [or her]."
"At the very heart
of the gospel is the promise of a deeper working of God's grace in the
heart of the Christian believer, a grace receivable by faith in this
present moment, enabling us to be and to act in conformity to the great
commandment, which is to love God supremely and to love every other
person as we love our own souls!" (William M. Greathouse,
Love Made Perfect)
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