3:17 perfect. The word used here for “perfect” (Greek artios) is found nowhere else in the New Testament. It seems basically to mean “new” or “fresh,” which most expositors interpret as “complete.” Perhaps, however, it refers to our ultimate perfection in Christ, when “we shall be like Him” (I John 3:2), with all sin removed and the age-long effects of the curse taken away. He has promised: “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5), and that must include us as well, even our bodies (Philippians 3:20-21). We shall then, indeed, be as fresh and perfect as Adam was when he was first created—even more so, as perfected in Christ. No doubt, the “man of God” shall be as perfect then as “the law of the LORD is perfect” now (Psalm 19:7), for the Holy Scriptures are now, and will eternally be, our spiritual food (Matthew 4:4; 24:35).

3:17 throughly furnished. “Throughly furnished” is one word in the Greek, meaning “completely equipped.” We need nothing more than God’s complete Word for our complete life.