perfection

²⁰Wisdom has strengthened the wise more than ten princes of a city.

⁴⁸Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

¹²It is not as though I have already received this, or were already perfect. But rather I pursue, so that by some means I might attain, that in which I have already been attained by Christ Jesus. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have already attained this. Instead, I do one thing: forgetting those things that are behind, and extending myself toward those things that are ahead, ¹⁴I pursue the destination, the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Therefore, as many of us as are being perfected, let us agree about this. And if in anything you disagree, God will reveal this to you also.

²For we all offend in many ways. If anyone does not offend in word, he is a perfect man. And he is then able, as if with a bridle, to lead the whole body around.

⁴and patience brings a work to perfection, so that you may be perfect and whole, deficient in nothing.

¹²No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

⁵But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the charity of God is perfected. And by this we know that we are in him.

¹⁸Fear is not in love. Instead, perfect love casts out fear, for fear pertains to punishment. And whoever fears is not perfected in love.

¹⁴For, by one oblation, he has brought to fulfillment, for all time, those who are sanctified.

¹⁵So may you be without blame, simple sons of God, without reproof, in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, among whom you shine like lights in the world,

²⁵But he who gazes upon the perfect law of liberty, and who remains in it, is not a forgetful hearer, but instead a doer of the work. He shall be blessed in what he does.

²¹Jesus said to him: “If you are willing to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.”