![]() In the New Testament James speaks similarly of "the perfect law that gives freedom" (1:25). God's "law is perfect, reviving the soul" ( Psalm 19:7 ). ![]() ![]() God "is perfect in knowledge" ( Job 37:16 ). Elsewhere the Old Testament asserts that God's "way is perfect the word of the Lord is flawless" ( 2 Sam 22:31 Psalm 18:30 ). Light is shed on this claim by four other clauses in the same verse that parallel and thereby explain it: (1) " is the Rock" (2) "all his ways are just" (3) " a faithful God who does no wrong" (4) "upright and just is he." God's perfection is an attribute of who he is as a person, not an idea or theoretical postulate, and it involves ethical qualities like justice and uprightness rather than properties that would indulge selfish human desire and pleasure (as in "a perfect meal" or "a perfect day"). Of foundational importance here is Moses' statement that the Lord's "works are perfect" ( Deut 32:4 ). This view is solidly based in a wide range of Old Testament passages that use words from the tamam group with its ethical connotations. Paul speaks of God's will as perfect ( Rom 12:2 ). Jesus assumes that the "heavenly Father is perfect" ( Matt 5:48 ). In Scripture essential perfection belongs to God alone. Nearly all New Testament occurrences translate Greek words sharing the tel- stem, from which some half-dozen words are formed that bear the sense of completion or wholeness.ĭivine. The former connotes wholeness, soundness, integrity, and often takes on ethical significance the latter connotes completeness, perfection, and can carry the aesthetic sense of comeliness or beauty. Two word-groups in the Hebrew Old Testament are translated "perfect" or "perfection": tamam and calal.
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