The Lord spoke with Solomon, answering his prayer after the completion of the temple. In I Kings 9 God said, Solomon “if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.” Think about the fact that God told Solomon that David, his father, was to be his religious example. That statement is a bit difficult to grasp if we know anything about David’s life. King David was a murderer and adulterer; he had a sinfully bad temper. He was a poor husband and often a bad father. In other words, he was a sinner like any other man, but sometimes much worse than other men. And YET the Lord said, “Solomon, if you are as like your father, I will bless you.” It is confusing that David was “a man after God’s own heart,” and yet there were times when he displayed a grossly evil heart.
What does this have to do with the words of Paul in verse 15? “Let US therefore, as many as be PERFECT, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” How many people in the church at Philippi were “perfect”? About as many as were in David’s palace. How many “perfect” people are there here in this service – in our church?
Part of the answer to that question is found in the definition of the Bible word for “perfect.” Sounding almost contradictory, this is a reference NOT to moral flawlessness, but to maturity or completeness. This same word “teleois” is found in Hebrews 5:14 – “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of FULL AGE, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” In another place it is translated, “men of understanding.” In scriptures like these that word is talking about being full grown – in contrast to being children. And in the same manner it can refer to spiritual maturity – in contrast to being a babe in Christ. The “perfection” of Philippians 3:15 is SPIRITUAL maturity. And then we notice that Paul says in verse 12 that he was NOT perfect. He was striving to reach unattained heights, carrying the burden of imperfection on his back. This constant effort after a higher level of life was actually a part of Paul’s PERFECT MAN. And then we notice that “as many as be perfect” might be at the same time be “otherwise minded.” This doesn’t mean that these perfect people were fighting and quarreling with each other. It means that their minds were not in complete conformity to the mind of the Lord.
Again, all this sounds contradictory and confusing, but let’s stir up the pot even more.
There are people whom the Bible describes as “PERFECT.”
Also – there are people whom we know to be sinners, yet whom the Bible calls “saints.” A saint is literally a sanctified person; someone who has been set apart BY God and UNTO God. And ultimately that means “made holy” – justified – declared righteous in God’s sight. But how can someone be holy and a gossip at the same time? How can someone be a pride-filled saint? How can he be a glutton and a saint, or a tyrant and a saint? The answer BEGINS with the realization that true sanctification is not a work of the flesh – but of grace. And the distance that someone has traveled is not as important as the direction he is going. One of the words translated “sin” in the Bible literally means “to miss the mark.” That we are going to often miss the mark is a given, but the question is, are we shooting at God’s target?
What made David a man after God’s own heart and an example for Solomon to follow? It was not that he was 80% successful in his obedience to Lord, but that his heart belonged to Jehovah. This means that the evaluation of David’s perfection was God’s business, not yours and mine. We may look at David and say, “Look at that dirty rotten scoundrel.” But we have been told, “Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” We might properly interpret verse15 to read: ”Let us therefore, as many are where we ought to be in our spiritual journey, be thus minded.”
What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. David, Abraham and Paul always had, even when they sinned, a desire to glorify and enjoy the Lord. It was repressed or overcome at times, but it lay at the bottom of their hearts. They weren’t always successful, but when in their right mind, that was the general direction of their hearts. It is an infinitely better life to love and reach out to God, even when we fall flat on our faces, than to be eating up the dirt and sin of the world.
What made David complete before God was the presence of the completing grace of God. And the saints of the 21st century are “saints” because God has declared them to be saints – “justified.” After their full glorification at the coming of Christ, they shall be saints in the fullest sense of the word. But today they are far short of moral and spiritual impeccability.
Paul reminds us of TWO DIFFERENT ASPECTS of this perfection.
Notice how he tells those “perfect” Philippians – and us – that we are to be “thus minded.” What minded? Evidently he is talking about the things that he has just said. And in his immediate context, Paul has just confessed that he, himself, was less than perfect. “Be thus minded, think of yourselves as I think of myself.” He said, “I recognize that I have not already apprehended the prize for which I have been saved.”
One of the leading characteristics of perfection/maturity is a consciousness of our imperfection. In every area of knowledge, the more we have, the more we learn that there is more to learn. The more powerful the telescope, the more we realize there are worlds we haven’t even imagined. The more powerful the microscope, the more we are able to divide and subdivide our substance. And the more theology and Bible we know, the more ignorant we know that we really are. I used to laugh at our son, Kraig, when he was young, watching a hockey game. He would say that if he had been in that play, in that man’s skates, he would have scored. He would have made a great play. But he could say that only because he had not yet been in that man’s shoes. Only people who have never done anything think that they can do everything. The measure of our perfection is in the consciousness of our imperfections.
That is what made David the Lord’s best man. Isn’t it interesting that despite all his sins, one sin not mentioned about David was PRIDE. That is not to say that David wasn’t proud, because, like us all, he was; but it wasn’t enumerated. The more perfect a man is the more alert and powerful that man’s conscience becomes. And as a result, the more perfect he is the more humble he becomes. Sure David sinned, but when Nathan said, “Thou art the man,” that was enough to break David’s heart. And by the way, the more perfect the man, the less he will accuse his neighbor of imperfection. I know Christians that would have been all over Abraham’s nephew Lot, like a vulture on a dying rabbit. But we are not told that Abraham said anything to Lot about his worldliness. And what was David’s opinion about Abner, Ahithophel, and Absalom?
Another characteristic of the perfect men is his constant striving for perfection. How dogmatically Paul says, “Brethren, I count NOT myself to apprehended… I press toward the mark…” “Reaching forth” in verse13 speaks about stretching every limb and muscle. It carries the idea of an Olympic broad-jumper, stretching out to plant himself in the distant sand. As he stretches forward, Paul is not concerned with any of his past accomplishments. He is reaching forth unto things which God has set before him. Have you ever gotten so upset with your failures that you temporarily gave up trying? Maybe it is something like memorizing scripture. You’ve failed to retain what your mind once possessed, so you’ve stopped trying. There are laws in the realm of physics which say, “Things always unwind and slow down.” Those laws apply in the spiritual realm too: The slower we progress the more slow we are going to become, until we are standing still.
So it is with any of us who might claim to be “perfect.” None of us are sufficiently perfect not to continue to stretch out to the very limits of our faith and heart. Perfect people are striving to be perfect. For example, theoretically, there is no limit to the joy we may have in the Lord. There is no cap upon the knowledge which we might have of Christ. There is no reason why our service can’t be more zealous, more spiritual, and more delightful. It is the duty of the perfect man to be discontent with his current imperfect condition. If we ARE content, we prove ourselves to be imperfect – defective, deficient, inferior and faulty.
And the MORE PERFECT we are – the MORE GOD will MINISTER to our IMPERFECTION.
“Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” Again, this reference to “another mind,” doesn’t refer to bickering between the church members. This is speaking of a failure in our perfection before God. Often, the more perfect we are, the more the Lord will speak to us about our imperfections.
So David stayed home from battle today. There may have been no sin in this. When he walked along the edge of the roof of his house, there was no sin in that. When he accidentally saw a woman neighbor bathing, initially there was no sin in that. But when he trained his gaze on her and lusted after her, he sinned, and when he took her he sinned. When he slept with her, he sinned. When he tried to cover his sin, he sinned. And when he had her husband murdered, he sinned. In those days and months, David was “otherwise minded” – not spiritually-minded. His heart was not in fellowship with his God, although he might not have thought much about it. For nearly a year he was otherwise minded, but then came day when Lord revealed even this unto him. Nathan bold asserted, “Thou art the man, David.”
These interruptions in perfection are NOT insignificant and unimportant. Because it is a “saint” who has sinned, his sin is 10x or 100x more odious than that sin in an unbeliever. And yet the Christian’s sin doesn’t nullify his position in Christ Jesus. His general direction is still toward the heart of God.
Sin in a Christian is a despicable thing, but it doesn’t condemn his soul. When a child disobeys his parent, he should be rebuked, and perhaps severely disciplined. But that child remains a member of that family. Our gracious Lord has quite a few Nathans out there to tell us when we have become “otherwise minded.”
The hope contained in these words is that CHRISTIAN GROWTH is always POSSIBLE.
The ground of that hope is not in our brains, or strength, or anything else in us. When we strive to reach forth unto those things which God has set before us…. When we have true, Christian, “imperfect-perfection,” God will not leave us to fail. He will reveal even this to us, because He is our loving Heavenly Father.
What tools will the Lord use to perfect us? Will it be the ministry of joy or of sorrow? Will you respond to the preaching of the Word of God, or will the Lord have to thump you on the head? Will it be an example He gives you to follow, or will it be a whip? Will he guide you with his eye, or will it take his hand or His boot to lead you? Whichever one it is, you will have what you need, if you really desire more of the Lord.
I’ll close with this old illustration. You’ve probably heard the little boy’s explanation about Enoch’s translation. His Sunday School class was learning about that early prophet who lived in the 7th generation from Adam. He was a preacher of righteousness whose message was not well received, yet he remained faithful. Finally the Lord took him home, but it wasn’t in the usual manner. Enoch was one day translated to Heaven bypassing death. A little boy in the class summarized Enoch’s life by saying that he got so close to the Lord’s house that it was easier to go to Heaven than to return to his own home. This should be our desire, to be so close to the Saviour, that some day it won’t be worth the effort to come back home.