Question of the day: What does it mean to you to be perfect?
The question of perfection is important. I think most people see this as an injunction that can be accomplished in this life. But it seems to me that this is more a vision of what we must continue to work towards day to day through or whole life.
2 comments:
Considering what the Lord had just described to the people, 'perfect takes on a specific meaning or definition. Jesus had just explained to the people what might be considered the most important traits to develop in life. To mention some, He said; respect life, control temper, be honest, be fair, be virtuous, etc.
The Savior then concludes these thoughts with a final thought which was his desire concerning them. "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect...". Could it be that the use of perfect here is 'complete'? That He wants us to embrace all of the foregoing traits and attitudes, not to chose those we find easy, but to work on them all. That through doing this we are like Him and His father, and finally that through our efforts and His atonement we can be complete and whole.
I like that definition. There is certainly the need to work on so many attributes, and in the end we will still be dependent on the atonement for any of it to mean anything.
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