2. Perfection Is Unity with God

World Scripture

You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5.48

No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.
1 John 3.9

Sincerity [Absolute Truth] is the Way of Heaven; the attainment of Sincerity is the Way of man. He who possesses Sincerity achieves what is right without effort, understands without thinking, and naturally and easily is centered on the Way. He is a sage.
Doctrine of the Mean 20.18 (Confucianism)

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if you shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is His grace sufficient for you, that by His grace you may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God you are perfect in Christ, you can in no way deny the power of God.
Book of Mormon, Moroni 10.32-33 (Latter-day Saints)

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17.7-8

The Master is a tree of contentment and forbearance; Righteousness its flower, enlightenment the fruit. This tree by joy in God keeps ever fresh and green; By practice of meditation is it ripened. With joy in the Lord is it consumed, By such as dispense the supreme charity of selfless action.
Adi Granth, Var Majh, M.1, p. 147 (Sikhism)

By fullness of leadership, the Wise Lord shall grant powerful communion Of perfection and Immortality, of Right, Dominion and Good Thought— To him who is a sworn friend; to him by spirit and by actions! Clear are these to the man of insight, as to a knowing one by mind. He upholds good Dominion, and Right by words and by actions. He, O Lord of Wisdom, shall be Thy most helping associate!
Avesta, Yasna 31.21-22 (Zoroastrianism)

Lao Tan said, “I was letting my mind wander in the beginning of things.” “What does this mean?” asked Confucius. Lao Tan said, “It means to attain Perfect Beauty and wander in Perfect Happiness. He who attains Perfect Beauty and wanders in Perfect Happiness may be called the Perfect Man.”
Chuang Tzu 21 (Taoism)

The Supreme Soul (Paramatman) is free from birth, old age and death; he is supreme, pure and devoid of the eight karmas; he possesses infinite knowledge, intuition, bliss and potency; he is indivisible, indestructible and inexhaustible. He transcends the senses and is supreme; he is free from obstructions, merit, demerit and rebirth; he is eternal, steady and independent.
Kundakunda, Niyamasara 176-77 (Jainism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

Jesus taught his disciples, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5.48) According to the Principle of Creation, a person who has realized the purpose of creation does not commit sin, because he is in full harmony with God and possesses a divine nature. With respect to the purpose of creation, such a person is perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus gave this teaching to his disciples with the hope that they could be restored as people who had realized the purpose of creation and become citizens of the Kingdom… What will people be like once they have been restored as those who have realized the purpose of creation and become perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect? Such people are fully attuned to God and experience God’s heart within their innermost self. They possess a divine nature and live their life with God, inseparable from Him.
(Exposition of the Divine Principle, Messiah 1.1)

For a person to realize his or her true nature, he or she must have a relationship with God, the cause of everything—life and death, fortune and misfortune. Without a relationship with God, a true pattern cannot be formed within the self. To become true,¹⁴ we must be centered upon God. People can realize their true selves only when God has established the foundation to lead them and reign over all aspects of their lives… God is the origin of everything true. Only in God can we become true. Should God leave us, we cannot remain true. There then comes into existence something untrue—the origin of evil. People cannot comprehend their true nature by themselves. Fallen people are in no position to judge whether they are true; rather the truth of our being should determine us. Therefore, we should always be obedient to our true self. We should prize it and follow it.
(24:315, September 14, 1969)

We can truly say that we know God only when we experience the reality of His existence in our daily life through our five senses. That is, we should know His real being through experience. Then we will naturally be able to sense what God’s will is from moment to moment, and we will be able to act in accordance with His will in every matter. In that state of perfection, even though we sometimes may feel an urge to sin, we cannot do it. Then, God will be able to take on the physical form of human beings who are equipped with the character and qualities of lords of creation. Thus we will enable the incorporeal God to exercise dominion over all things on earth—the corporeal world—as well as over the spirit world. This is why the highest priority and most important element in human life is to know God with certainty… Once we come to know God with certainty, and know not just the concept of the spirit world but also its reality, our life can move forward as smoothly as a car on an expressway. Just as the car reaches its destination safely as long as the driver follows the rules of the road, keeps his hands on the steering wheel and doesn’t fall asleep, so too we only need to live in line with the direction from our conscience, which is given by Heaven. This is where our mind and body become one. This is where the flower of human perfection blooms and bears fruit.
(447:157~158, May 1, 2004)

What is a true human being? Playing with God, resting with God, sleeping with God and living with God: whoever wishes to do all these with God is the supreme, true human being. God is looking for such true human beings. By the same token, we human beings are searching for what is true, and for a true world. A world where everyone lives with God is a world of true love and true happiness.
(60:284, August 18, 1972)