The Greek word ‘perfection’ is teleiotes, one of a number of words derived from telos ‘the end’. The fundamental conception in all the variants of this word, teleios, teleioo, teleiotes, teleiosis, to say nothing of compounds made with apo, ana, en, epi, dia and sun, is that of taking whatever is in hand or in view to a finish or conclusion. This feature can be demonstrated in several ways:
(1) ‘Perfecting holiness’ (2 Cor. 7:1).
Of all subjects, the one that cannot conceivably be ‘improved’ must be holiness, and without the context such an expression as ‘to perfect holiness’ seems to be more senseless and impossible than it would be ‘to gild the lily or to paint the rose’. If however we observe the context of this exhortation, we shall see that practical sanctification is in view. Not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers is to ‘perfect holiness’; to remember that, if we are looked upon as the temple of the living God, there can be no possible agreement with idols and with the promise attached to the separation from any unclean thing, the apostle says ‘Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us CLEANSE OURSELVES from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, PERFECTING HOLINESS in the fear of God’ (2 Cor. 7:1). Perfecting, making what is yours by gift, grace and reckoning ‘a fact’, perfect. In other words taking sanctification to its logical conclusion.
(2) Perfection is sometimes placed over against ‘the beginning’. Hebrews 6:1 urges the believer to leave the arche ‘the word of the BEGINNING of Christ, and to go on unto the goal, the end, the conclusion, ‘perfection’. So, in Hebrews 12:2 the ‘Author’, the Greek archegos, is placed over against the ‘Finisher’ or ‘Perfecter’, teleiotes. This emphasizes the presence in all words dealing with perfection of the root telos ‘the end’.
(3) ‘The perfect’ is sometimes used to indicate an adult, as over against the immature or the babe:
‘Ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (teleios)’. (Heb. 5:12-14).
The connection between this passage and the opening exhortation of Hebrews 6 is plain. In Ephesians 4:13,14 we have the perfect man placed over against children, and 1 Corinthians 2 and 3 with its use of ‘perfect’ and its ‘babes’, its ‘milk’ and its ‘meat’, is another evidence that the writer of Corinthians wrote the epistle to the Hebrews.
(4) The figure of a race or contest uses these words. Hebrews 12:2 just quoted associates the ‘finisher’ with ‘running the race’, and Paul, who in Philippians was running with the prize of the high calling in view and confessed that he was not at that time ‘perfect’, is permitted in his last epistle to realize that he had touched the tape, saying:
‘I have fought a good fight (agona “race” Heb. 12:1),
I have finished (teleo) my course,
I have kept the faith; henceforth.. a crown’. (2 Tim. 4:7,8).
It is utterly impossible to believe that the Saviour could be ‘improved’ morally or spiritually, and where it says ‘He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and being made perfect’ (Heb. 5:8,9) it indicates that He went through ‘to the end’, and as a consequence He became ‘the author’ of eternal salvation; in Hebrews 2:10 ‘The Captain of our salvation’ was made ‘perfect’ through sufferings, and in Hebrews 12:1,2 He became ‘the author’ and ‘the finisher’, and for the joy set before Him endured the cross.
We shall meet with these words, these derivatives of telos ‘the finish’ or ‘the end’ in about thirty passages in Hebrews…
This teaching is by Charles Welch from his book titled Perfection or Perdition