Becoming whole

Few sentences in the Bible have put so many people under pressure. Read it as 'never make a mistake' and you end up exhausted or give up. But the Greek word, teleios, is closer to finished, whole, complete. It was also used of an adult, as opposed to a child.

Jesus says it at the end of a passage about loving the one who strikes you, the one who forces you, the one who is your enemy. Perfect here means a love without gaps, one that leaves no one out. It is not a demand to be flawless, but a direction to grow in.