While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you,  but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

(Matthew 26.6-13 ) This records an incident towards the end of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus visited Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, ahead of his final journey into the city. He would then share a final meal with the Twelve, walk to Gethsemane, be arrested and put to death.

Deuteronomy 15 includes a section concerning the seventh year of the Jewish calendar, which included the cancellation of debts, which was designed to provide for the poor. Verses 4 and 5 strongly link the statement ‘there should be no poor among you’ with the people’s full obedience to these commands.  Obedience to the commands to forgive debts, to bless the poor, would be rewarded by overflowing blessings upon the nation,

Yet verse 11 indicates ‘there will always be the poor,’ since the circumstances of life in a broken world tend towards unfair distribution of all material things; food, wealth, etc. And, I might add, national disobedience thereafter guaranteed this.

In the early chapters of Acts, there is a different approach. The first believers ‘had everything in common’ (2.44-45) and ‘no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own’ (4.32-35).

This is a different way of thinking. Instead of obedience to earn blessings, we respond to abundant blessings which come by faith in Christ, by generous and costly obedience. There is an organic overflow of blessing in the community of faith.

In recalling a meeting with the apostles, James, Peter and John, Paul comments that they urged him to continue to remember the poor (Gal 2,10).

Generosity towards others was and is, as essential mark of the New Testament way of life.

Paul writes in Romans 8.29 that we are predestined to be conformed to the image, or likeness, of Christ. There are numerous similar comments in the NT, from Paul and Peter and John. This is a key issue. As I have tried to set out below, the ‘goal’ for the Christian is maturity or completeness, which is the very image of Jesus Christ, the ultimate human.

In one of his earliest letters, to the Churches in Galatia, Paul was perplexed at the cooling of their love for Christ, and for him! He reminds them of his commitment to them, ‘until Christ is formed in you’ (Gal 4.19).

The ‘prison epistles’ are each focussed on this same goal.

Eph 4.11-13 describes gifts, given by the risen Christ to the Church, ‘so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’

In Phil 3.12-14, Paul underlines his own journey; ‘I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.’ He is writing as a fellow traveller to the goal of maturity, and he too was pressing on to that goal.

In Col 1.28-29, Paul proclaimed Christ (as he had in v15-23), in order to present everyone perfect (mature) in Christ.

 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

Whilst preparing these notes, a friend quoted 2 Peter 1.3-8, asking about this goal. Peter shares Paul’s ambition. We are called to escape the corruption of this world, and to pursue those godly qualities, and in increasing measure.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;  and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, John refers to Christ’s return; ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.’ (1 John 3.2-3) Our future state is guaranteed; in response, we ‘purify’ ourselves, just as He is pure. John uses the phrase ‘as He’ a few times. Our goal is to be ‘as He,’ to walk as Jesus walked, to live and speak as Jesus did.

The root Greek word is TELEO, a verb, meaning to accomplish or finish or perform. Vine’s Expository Dictionary lists its associated words being translated into English as: consecrate, perfect, fulfil, end, amongst others. Thus, the TELEOS, the end goal is maturity or completeness. Tom Wright’s Virtue Reborn is an excellent book comprehensively explaining this principle.

In the UK many bemoan the nation’s persistent abandoning of Biblical standards. I understand that. Our nation has been shaped over centuries by men and women committed to Biblical standards. There has been a huge Christian influence in previous generations. For example, key leaders and innovators during the Industrial Revolution were Christians, as were social revolutionaries in the 19^th century.

My observation is that Christians tended to withdraw from public spheres after World War 1. This seems to have accelerated secularisation. That withdrawal is a cause of secularisation, not merely a reaction to it.

In his seminal book ‘Issues facing Christians today,’ John Stott provides some detail concerning this withdrawal from public life. He describes ‘the great reversal,’ whose roots pre-dated the first World War. He suggests five main factors (each of which are worthy of further consideration):

• The fight against theological liberalism which neglected the preaching of the gospel;
• The rejection by evangelicals of ‘the social gospel;’
• The impact of war;
• The influence of premillennialism; and
• The rise of the middle classes. Stott suggests Christians diluted their Christian character with this new class culture.

Tom Wright in Virtue Reborn comments: ‘The Western world has supposed, for two hundred years and more, that splitting off questions of social justice from questions of God and faith would give us a more just society. The revolutions, totalitarianisms, and all-out way of that period have proved us wrong. But to put God and human justice back together again will require a sustained effort, not only by individuals but by the church as a whole, developing the corporate virtues of justice – work that will become habits of the church’s heart and will appeal to the conscience of the wider world.’

Whilst I do not welcome the gradual advance of secularisation, there is no assumption in the NT that Christians will inhabit a God-fearing society. In fact, most of the Bible is written in times or situations where those in authority and influence did not follow the ways of the God of Israel, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The history of the early Church in Acts took place largely within the Roman empire. And those who took the gospel beyond the Roman empire merely met different forms of hostility. Until the conversion of Constantine, who claimed to have met Christ, and ushered in a regime supportive of Christians, there were a series of persecutions against Christians throughout the Roman empire. For centuries since, Christians have lived in similarly hostile environments.

In our day persecution of Christians takes many forms. Open persecution, loss of employment, martyrdom, continue to occur. Yet, in western countries, ‘persecution’ is more subtle, for example through the growth of secularisation. The call to Christians is to remain faithful to Christ in any and all circumstances.

The UK is not a ‘Christian country,’ and perhaps never was. Although Israel was intended to be a theocracy (a pre-Christian equivalent?), it rarely lived up to that standard. Often in the OT accounts, those who were faithful to the God of Israel found themselves in a small minority in Israel and subject to severe persecution.