Christians are very confused as to what the goal of our discipleship training is to take us.

We, first of all, are confused because people want to be. They do not want answers. They want to stay the way they are. If you talk about where one wants to be, then they must make some changes in their lives. For the most part, this is because of hidden sin that fears exposure.

"And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:19-21, NASB).

A common argument to hide behind is "God does not expect us to be perfect!" If the person looks like they may say "Yes," they follow up with the quick retort, "I don't expect that you will say you are perfect, do you?!" This silences most people. And the truth is concealed a bit longer.

We might keep this problem in mind as we discuss what the scriptures do teach. We will come back to this problem at the end.

We want to focus on three teachings that speak to the goals that we should be pursuing in this life: holiness, perfection, and Christ's likeness. The New Testament will be used to both simplify our discussion and to keep others from finding distracting questions with the Law.

1) Holiness

We should not be surprised that holy or its root is used 177 times in the New Testament alone. Many of these usages are of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the angels. Sometimes it is used of men.

John the Baptist

"For Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him." (Mark 6:20, NASB).

Christians generally

"And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" (Colossians 3:12, NASB).

"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession." (Hebrews 3:1, NASB).

We should note, however, that the power of this word is hidden away in the word saints. Saints literally means 'holy one.' It is from the same root word as above, 'holy.' This is used over sixty times in the NT.

"Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them". (Romans 16:15, NASB).

"Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also." (1 Corinthians 16:1, NASB).

The New Testament calls His people holy and saints, but it also speaks about our calling as holy. This focuses on what God has done and what He is doing.

"Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him ... " (Ephesians 1:4, NASB).

"That He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless." (Ephesians 5:27, NASB).

"Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity" (2 Timothy 1:9, NASB).

Summary

Holiness means 'set apart for.' When a person becomes a Christian, he is set apart as a holy person. Just as one would dedicate a pot to the temple and thereafter call it holy, so a Christian is dedicated to the Lord. He is holy. In fact, from Ephesians 1:4 we find that God has set us apart for Himself long before we were ever born. In time, we became Christians.

There is no doubt that this word clearly sets a goal ahead of every Christian. We are to live pleasing in God's sight. We are to accomplish His purpose in this world. We no longer have the will to express ourselves but to wholly be of God's service. Peter clinches this argument in 1 Peter 1:15-16,

"But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

We must ask does this address the issue of being perfect on earth? If pressed hard, we would say no. Its emphasis is instead to consecrate us. This implies that it is a focus more on our wills to live after God's purpose rather than our own purposes. In this sense it speaks a lot to our goals as a Christian.

We are to align our wills with God's. Therefore, a big part of our Christian lives is to conform our lives to His purpose. This is done both by denying our own flesh which rebels against God's intention and subject our selves to the Lord's ways. The clearer a Christian is on this calling of holiness, the more easy it is stay focused and obey the Lord.

2) Perfection

This word has caused a lot of problems because of its idea of absolute completion or fulfillment. Because we are talking of upright living, we apply the word to mean "totally without sin." We need to understand whether the word teaches this and whether the Bible itself teaches it. Before we do this, we might look Jesus demand for us to be perfect .

"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48, NASB).

Not only are we to be perfect, but the stand for this perfection is in our God, the One untainted with sin.

Definition of perfect.
The word 'perfect' means complete or end. We might think of it more as a goal. Robertson's Word Pictures comments on the word as used in Matthew 5:48

"The word comes from telov, end, goal, limit. Here it is the goal set before us, the absolute standard of our Heavenly Father. The word is used also for relative perfection as of adults compared with children."

Thayer's lexicon gives four possible usages of this NT word telios.

1) brought to its end, finished
2) wanting nothing necessary to completeness
3) perfect
4) that which is perfect

New Testament Usage of 'perfect'

The most relevant NT usages of perfect that have to do with a man being perfect are below.

"Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus" (Php 3:12).

Paul says in Philippians 3:12 says he has not already become perfect. He is on a race. He still has a distance to go.

"Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you" (Php 3:15).

Paul shows that the most complete and mature attitude is reflected in the way that we have an attitude like Paul. The focus is not on being complete in a full moral sense, but on having the right attitude as Paul in his striving to be complete and finish the race.

"To the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect" (Heb 12:23).

The usage here is interesting because it refers to the spirits of righteous men made perfect. This could refer to Christ making them perfect through His righteousness or through discipline to living by God's ways.

"For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well"(Jas 3:2).

We could see the sense here as a perfect man to refer to either a complete man or morally perfect man. The two ideas seem to blend closely together.

Summary

When we speak of the goal of a Christian, indeed this is the right word to use. 'Telios' focuses on the end product. Paul gave us a clear picture of the usage of the word there in Philippians 3.

• First of all, we are to realize that we are not yet perfect. We are not reached completion. He is not speaking of 'without sin' as many people use the word. The idea is he has only completed so much of what he has been called to do. He of course was not at all excluding the demand to live morally upright life but this is only a small part of life. He was called to live out what God called him to. Paul has not yet reached that goal. Yet, we see him diligently seeking it. He was going for it.
  
• Secondly, we see in the same context that Paul is willing to use the word perfect to describe people who have this attitude that they are striving to reach the goal. We see here a very deliberate attempt to fight the pride in people who might say that they 'have arrived' or are 'perfect.' He defines for them that a perfect person is one who is striving to be perfect.(2)
  

The word 'perfect' as used in the scriptures is not the same as often thought of in our world.

1) We are not to think of ourselves as perfect right now simply because we are not perfect. By definition we cannot reach the full potential until the full time has arrived.
2) However, we are to keep a striving spirit within us in which we seek the full purpose for which God has called us. This fully concurs with our sense of life goal.
3) The word perfect as far as we see it extended to man, has a much broader scope than one who has completely kept some laws like the ten commandments. A person who has lived by God's laws and commandments are called upright or blameless. The life of love, for example, not only fulfills the ten commandments but goes far beyond them with kind and good acts of goodwill toward others.

3) Life of Christ in us

The last category is to be like Jesus Christ. we are His disciples.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20, NASB).

We are at once commanded to make disciples but also told how. Once baptized in Christ's name, they are to be taught to observe what Jesus has commanded His disciples. Completeness here focuses on being shaped to be like Christ.

We see this throughout the NT epistles where the Spirit of CHrist in the Holy Spirit is to dwell within us.

"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you." (Romans 8:11, NASB).

"Paul says, "For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." (2 Corinthians 4:11, NASB).

"Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 1:13, NASB).

We are to be like Jesus. Discipleship includes some major shaping of thoughts, attitudes and actions to bring ourselves in conformity to Christ's ways. God is working in us but the work is not yet done.

4) Blameless (11), righteous and upright

These should be grouped together because they focus on the same issue of living good and holy lives. We do not here of anyone being perfect on earth except Christ, but we do hear of many who were upright, righteous or blameless.

Blameless

"So that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:10, NASB). This is a goal we have during our lives on earth. We are to maintain our blamelessness.

"As to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless" (Philippians 3:6, NASB). Paul defined blameless or righteousness as one who has kept the commands God has given to him. He prides himself on this point. "And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless. (Revelation 14:5, NASB). These blameless one had no lie in their mouths" (Rev 14.5).

Joseph was a righteous man.

"And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly" (Matthew 1:19, NASB).

"He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet"s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. (Matthew 10:41, NASB).

"Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and let the one who is holy, still keep himself holy." (Revelation 22:11, NASB).

Clearly, there are expected to be righteous men. It was not to be unusual or impossible, but right and good.

Upright

"You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers" (1 Thessalonians 2:10, NASB).

This word is not hardly used in the NT Nasb. But the one time it does, shows that it along with devout and blameless all show a lifestyle. They live righteously according to God's expectation.

Summary

Although people were not called perfect, but sometimes holy. But righteous and blameless is a much more common way of showing the characteristic of a person. He went by God's ways. They were not legalist but they could be, that is, they were pretenders to keep God's law. But their hearts were evil. We might not call ourselves righteous but certainly as God's child we shold be living rghteously.

Conclusion

We not only have earthly goals right now, but future ones. By that we mean that we realize that we are always getting better. We are ursuing a more consecrated life. We are talked about being totally perfect but are to be like our perfect heavenly Father who was good even to the evil. We are to be righteous and blameless. We should nto hesitate in living according to God's standards.

How does this relate to our question?
We have discussed a lot of information. In summary, we are to live upright lives. God expects us to. We should expect it of ourselves. The scriptures don't use the word perfect to describe this. The word perfect has a larger sense in fulfilling our life's goal. What it does is focus on God's clear revelation of what He does want. We are to go by Jesus' commands. None of them are to be made not important.

Those who say, "No one is perfect," should be followed up with different replies to be biblical.
1) No one is perfect because we have not yet completed our work on earth yet. We have not completely fulfilled Christ' purpose for us yet. But I do live righteously. I walk in His ways.