Perfect in Christ

I jokingly say sometimes, "people who think they are perfect are very annoying to those of us who really are."  That tongue-in-cheek statement is humorous only because none of us believes any of us is perfect because we know that "all sin and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23).

Paul's statement above and our personal experience in failure  notwithstanding, we are instructed to "be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48).  And Paul's goal for disciples is to "present everyone perfect in Christ" (Col 1:28). 

So what gives?  How can we so obviously be imperfect and incapable of perfection, if perfection is our calling and our expressed goal?

Let me offer two thoughts that may help to reconcile that seeming irreconcibility. 1) An ultimate goal is not necessarily something to obtain, rather it often is something we are continually in the process of obtaining. For instance, a goal of learning as much as you can doesn't end until you are dead - it is a lifetime pursuit not really an amount of knowledge. 

2) The word for perfect in the Greek New Testament language (teleios) does not mean "morally without error" but rather "fitted for the task" or perhaps "mature."  In fact, Colossians 1:28 is often translated "mature" rather than "perfect."

In other words, we are to strive to be our best and be in the process of growing up in Christ as lifetime pursuits. Jus' Sayn.