In one of his marvelous epistles, after clearly setting forth our duty and relation to God, to Christ, and to our fellow-man, showing us the evils we must avoid and the good we should do, putting off the old man, the false self and its deeds, putting on the new, regenerated by a new revelation of himself as the image of his Maker (renewing of the mind),—after showing us all this. Paul says, "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."
This disciple had a clear, practical conception of the Truth Jesus taught, and from the viewpoint of his rich experience he tells us that the greatest attainment in our spiritual growth and progress is charity, love, because it is the "bond of perfectness." Before Paul ever knew the Truth, its Teacher had said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect."
Even before this, when the great Truth-demonstrator was as yet dimly perceived and foretold by prophets, God said through Moses, "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." Ever since its enunciation, men have equivocated by claiming that it does not mean what it says. You cannot be perfect, say they. You can only try to be, and that is what the command means. The wording, however, is final, "Be perfect." Then says the doubter, How? How can sinning, mortal, human nature be perfect? No answer could be more simple. It cannot. Sickly, selfish, misnamed man never was perfect, nor ever can be, and he is not told to be. We are commanded to be our true selves, to be the image of our Creator, to reflect perfection. This spiritual, real man is already perfect, holy, obediently reflective of his Mind and Father.
