MISCONCEPTION OF SCRIPTURAL TERMS Part 3

The wisdom of the fathers

MISCONCEPTION OF SCRIPTURAL AND RELIGIOUS TERMS? Part 3

The second word is “GO.” Paul uses it in Hebrews 6:1: “Let us go on unto perfection.” The perfection here mentioned does not mean that absolute perfection that men at once think of when they hear the word. It does not mean deliverance from mistakes and blunders. Nor does it mean perfect knowledge. That we will never have, even in heaven.?

A minister, lately writing against holiness, remarked that when Paul said, “as many of us as be perfect,” he referred to perfectness of knowledge. This the reader will feel at once is a mistake. We will be adding to our knowledge forever. The one perfection that the Bible speaks of is “perfect love.” The taking out of the unfriendly element or nature, inbred sin, secures this blessed condition.?

O how the writer rejoices that it is our privilege to possess this perfection of love, with its invariable concomitants, purity, peace, and joy! It is to this that Paul says: “Let us go on unto.” He did not say, “Let us grow to it;” but “Let us go to it.” Everybody ought to know that we grow in one direction, and go in another. Growth is vertical; to go is a horizontal movement. They are never the same. We grow in grace, but we go on to another blessing God has waiting for us.?

It is a blessing and experience that has a locality and boundary lines. Dr. Clarke says that a true rendering of the passage is: “Let us be borne on immediately into perfection.” Be this as it may, growth in grace is a process, while to go on to perfect love is a performance. The first takes place insensibly; the second, in full consciousness of a great and gracious event. The first is gradual, running through the sweep of years; the other is momentary. The first never ceases, but goes on forever; while the other happens but once, and remains as an unchangeable blessing.?

(from "The Old Man" by Rev. Carradine)