James 1:4

4. Let this firm endurance have… perfect work, its completing effect, so that all temptation may be warded off, all sin avoided, a full power of resistance attained, and a complete Christian solidity be established.

Perfect The Greek word τελειος (derived from τελος , an end) signifies one finished, or complete. Pagan Greece had her men who were said to be finished, or perfect, after the standard of pagan virtue. Says Isocrates, (quoted by Bloomfield,) “These I pronounce to be wise and perfect men, and to have all the virtues.” We say of a man of culture that he is “a finished man.” St. James accumulates epithets and phrases in asserting the finished Christian man.

Entire The positive presence of every part requisite to completeness.

Wanting nothing The same expressed negatively. Of St. James’s perfect man we may note: 1. He is not a sudden product, even by faith, but a growth from trial, persistence, and experience.

Herein this view varies from, perhaps, but does not contradict, St. John’s and St. Paul’s. 2. It is a practical perfection, after a human measure, realizable in this life. It should be the steady aim of every Christian. 3. It consists in a degree of spiritual and moral power, through divine aid, of resisting temptation, avoiding sin, and attaining excellence. Just so far as the Christian possesses that power, so far is he the perfect Christian. And it is not so much a “second blessing” as a consummating of the first one. 4.

Without assuming to decide whether James’s perfect man professes perfectness, we do think that the perfect man as imaged by him reveals himself to men not so much by profession as by practical life and spirit, by which others spontaneously assign him his character, and thereby ratify his profession, if he makes one.