Called to Perfection; The Community of Divinity

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

 I said, “You [ are ] gods,
And all of you [ are ] children of the Most High.

Psalm 82:6

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. 
Hosea 11:1

'Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect' ( Matthew 5:48 ). The Greek 'τέλειος', transliterated 'teleios' has more a meaning of completeness than of the way that we think of perfection today. When we say that someone is perfect, whether its in our own eyes or in God's sight, we are usually saying that one is with sin, or flaw, as in 'a perfect body'. In the latter half of Psalm 101:2, David writes, 'I will walk within my house with a perfect heart'. Again, the Hebrew 'תֹּם', transliterated 'tom' has more of a definition of 'completeness' than what we usually think of as 'perfection'. Now, please don't get me wrong here: I am not trying to say that we should not strive for the modern definition of perfection, as found in phrases like, 'Adam & Eve were created perfect'. We should always be concerned with doing right, with living up to the completeness, or perfection in which we, as the Body of Christ, have been called and made!

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, 

and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

John 14:23

 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, 

to an innumerable company of angels,

 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn [ who are ] registered in heaven, 

to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,

 and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than [ that of ] Abel.

Hebrews 12:22-24

Biblical history is linear; there was a Beginning, and there was an End! In the Book of Revelation, we see this 'Alpha & Omega'. God began by 'creating', and ended by decreating, yet creating anew, in a very perfect chiasm. The more we study and search things out, the more we are convinced by the Hebrew usage that the creation account in Genesis 1 &2 was not that of the universe and of humankind ( from their inception ), but of 'the Land', and then 'Man on the Land'. God instituted His Covenant with Creation by beginning in one small area, what is commonly know as 'The Cradle of Civilization'. From there, the knowledge of God spread outward to the known world, which, at the time was the Mediterranean region, in particular, 'the Land', more commonly known as Israel, or Palestine. From there, this knowledge spread out further, to the far reaches of what became the Roman Empire, and through succeeding empires, throughout the whole world, and every nation under heaven!

The writer to the Hebrews told his readers that they had arrived at this end, the eschatological Hope that had been foretold throughout Scripture; they had attained perfection, not through any merit of their own, but by 'the blood of sprinkling'. Through this Baptism of the Holy Spirit of God, through the sacrifice of the Christ, the had been 'made perfect', or complete, they had reached the End, which was the Dwelling of God with and in His People, His True Temple! This had been pictured and foreshadowed throughout the History of Israel, Beginning with the Garden of Eden, and Ending with the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70AD, the last man-made vestige of God's Temple. Now was the Time for the Temple 'made without hands' ( Daniel 2:45:58 ). to be revealed. This Temple, in and through Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, is the Body of His People, 'Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice'!

'This is inconsistent', you might say, 'with other pieces you have written on the subject of 'All God's Children'!' Is it? You may judge for yourself ( and please do ) whether what I have said here is inconsistent with my previous writings, but I do not believe that it is! Just because all are God's children does not mean that all are God's Temple, as David wrote in Psalm 50:5 above! As John wrote ( John 14:23 ), it is those ( of His children ) who obey His Covenant and love Him that God enters into and makes His Dwelling!

The perfection to which we, as the People, or Temple of God have attained unto is not simply a flawless beauty which comes through any physical prowess, nor is it what we most often think of as perfection ( at least in Christianity ) a flawless obedience to God's Holy Law of Love ( although that may be included );the perfection to which we have attained is the Marriage of Heaven & Earth, wherein God Dwells in His Temple, and we are One!

Married and loving Him,
Charles Haddon Shank