Be ye perfect

No person can go in one step from how they are to how God is, and everyone seems to naturally know that well enough to balk at anyone who suggests that they can be perfect. You can’t be exactly as God is right now. You do not know what God knows, desire what he desires, or desire it as much as he does. In fact, you are so far from how he actually is that you can’t know how far you actually are.² And yet, Jesus said very clearly: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) The key to this seeming contradiction lies in the idea that God’s definition of perfect is very different from how we use the word. In the ancient languages, perfect was not the description of an outcome so much as a process; a process that maximally flows and grows to the intended end. To be perfect in Christ is to progress as quickly as possible in your understanding of how he is by living exactly as you believe he would in your place given how you presently understand him to be.

While it is not possible to become how God actually is in a single step, the path towards him is composed of a long series of steps, each of which requires us to be exactly like him, so far as we presently perceive him to be. To be perfectly aligned with your present understanding of God, you have to forsake all things you believe he wouldn’t do in your place while unfailingly doing all things you believe he would do in your place:

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (Moroni 10:32)

Many erroneously consider submission to God as the process. Getting to know God is a process, but obedience is not. The gospel consists of events and processes. It is important to correctly recognize which is which. While learning more about God is a process, obeying him is a choice. Learning more about him is a process, but deciding to submit to him is an event. This event is called repentance. It entails forsaking everything you know of that is contrary to God, and embracing all things that align with him, with the understanding that he will incrementally teach you more and different information than your present understanding of him.

Progress towards God is not all at once with regard to the perfection of God, but it must be all at once with regard to how you understand the perfection of God to be. Our progress towards how God actually is always incremental, but our progress towards how we presently perceive God to be never is. You can’t give your whole soul to God in installments. You can’t sacrifice yourself completely a little at a time. You can’t work yourself up to loving God above all else. You either do or you don’t, and until you do, you don’t.