Be exactly who God called you to be!

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:8

 Why did Jesus mean when He commanded us to be perfect?

An English understanding of the word is to be completely free of faults or defects.

Is Jesus commanding that from the moment of our new birth we never sin or err again. Is He setting an impossible bar for us to attempt to pole vault over?

Seems a little unfair Jesus!

But Jesus is not saying never sin again (He knows we will..! He knows our nature, that we are flawed)

Let’s look at the original text in the Greek…

Jesus is actually commanding us:

Be 'teleios’ even as my father in heaven is 'teleios’.

'Teleios' is where the word ‘telescope’ comes from. It carries with it the understanding of being unfolded one stage at a time until there is a capacity to function at full effectiveness. Synonyms of 'teleios' are: mature, complete, of full age.

It literally means 'something that has achieved the purpose for which it was made’.

To you who have surrendered to the Spirit of the Living God, you are being unfolded one stage at a time until there is capacity within you to function at full effectiveness.

To be 'teleios’ is to be mature and fully effective in what you have been called to do. It is almost synonymous with another Greek word 'huios’ which describes a mature son in terms of status, relationship and inheritance. These are those ones for whom the earth is groaning - to see them revealed, Romans 8:19-22. Most in the Western church are not yet operating in the fullness of the inheritance of 'huios’ sons or at full 'teleios’ capacity. We are still infants ('nepios’ in the Greek), carnal-minded, blown about by every wind of teaching; storm-tossed.

It is God's deepest desire that you will be a 'huios’ son and that you will be 'teleios’; that you will embody the Christ in character and be found in Him, this is the purpose for which you were made!

When you are ‘teleios’ you will walk in your function. You will know and understand how you fit into the Body of Christ. You will become an essential component of the wilded organism of the church. This is distinct from the ORGANISATION of the church. This has nothing to do with being an ‘elite’ Christian or a 'professional’ Christian or being in a paid ministry role in a church. This is you, who, through intimacy with the One who made you, is living out your portion of the revelation of Jesus in the earth. We all have a portion of the Christ to carry and burden bear and birth into the earth so that what is alive and resounds in the spirit becomes a lived out reality of the Kingdom of heaven here on earth. On earth as it is in heaven!

We have crossed over into the Kingdom era and the Lord is raising up and revealing His mature sons - His 'huios’ sons… the ones who have been unfolded one stage at a time so that they operate at maximum 'teleios’ effectiveness, the ones who govern and rule with Him in His Kingdom.

This is not simply a thing on God's 'nice to have but not essential list’ This must happen. We MUST become ‘huios’ and we must become ‘teleios’. The church must be brought to maturity.

Ephesians 4 tells us in very straightforward and explicit language the purpose of the church, and it is not simply to get more people saved and into the Kingdom. (Sorry if that shocks you!)

The purpose of the church is for the body to be brought to maturity; that, speaking the truth in love, we will become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head. 

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:11-16

Verse 12-13 in the Amplified Classic Bible translation draws out this thought even more:

“His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church). [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.”

Jesus is not a bodyless head. He has a body and it is YOU! And it is me! Church we MUST be ‘teleios’, we must arrive at really mature manhood (the completeness of the personality of Christ!!) Jesus needs a body on the earth with whom He can govern and through whom He can reveal His fullness. When He is revealed and lifted up in His body He will draw all men to Himself!

I once heard a preacher say to his congregation: ‘the moment you join this church it is no longer about you’. This is wrong! YOU matter! Your purpose matters! Your heart matters to God. He is committed to your wellness and the wholeness of your heart so that you can step into your freedom and your inheritance, so as a living part of a living body you become Jesus in the earth.

The earth is groaning for the revealing of the sons.. the mature sons.. the ‘huios’ sons who walk in ‘teleios’ perfection. When the body of Christ is brought to maturity and the sons are revealed, Jesus is revealed through them!

The days of slapping on a fake smile for church once a week are gone. Living a fake, hypocritical expression of Christianity, even if well-intentioned, will no longer cut it.

We are called to be TRANSFORMED! The word for transformed is ‘metamorphoo’,  it is the same word used when Jesus is transfigured on the mount where His face shone like the sun and His clothes became dazzling white.

‘Metamorphoo’ means: “Change form in keeping with inner reality. A profound visible change that proceeds from an inward reality, never a mere external disguise”.

I heard someone recently and brilliantly explain this as ‘becoming externally what you are internally’.

So here’s the question… is being transfigured just a thing Jesus can do?

NO! We are also being ‘metamorphood’, as we, with unveiled faces contemplate the glory of the Lord such that we are transformed / transfigured into the same image from glory to glory.

As you behold Him you are becoming externally what you already are internally. You are the light of the world! This is what is in you! This is who you are! LIGHT!

Did you know that the Hebrew word for skin is the same as the Hebrew word for light! Adam and Eve were initially clothed in light. They were given coverings of skin after they fell. Bodies made from dust. Skin made from dust. This is our carnal nature and our carnal nature is what the enemy feeds on - remember the curse given to the man in Genesis? “For dust you are and to dust you will return” and the curse given to the serpent.. “and on your belly you will crawl and you will eat dust”!

And yet we have this illuminated treasure in jars of clay! This is the Christ in us…

Have you wondered at the shaking of the past years.. the storms and trials and wilderness and fire? All our own nonsense has been and is being shaken out of us so that we become pure vessels that shine… lights on a hill, lamps no longer hidden under bushels.

I know the process has been tough (believe me I know!) Everything that could and can be shaken in you has been: you are being shaken out of fear, unbelief, mixture and compromise… out of Babylon and into His Kingdom. You are being conformed to His image. You have been and are being stretched and unfolded until you reach ‘teleios’ capacity, until the light that is in you (IS YOU!) can shine out of you in transfigured glory. You are becoming externally who Jesus says you already are internally. A child of the most high. A member of His body in the earth. We take our place in His body so that we can rule and reign with Him, so that Jesus truly can be lifted up in the earth; the Kingship and Headship of Jesus revealed through His body to the heavenly hosts and to a world in desperate need of all that He is.