Perfect as the Master
Bishop H. Goodwin. Luke 6:40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. The explanation of this verse seems to turn upon the word translated "perfect," a word entirely different from that which is so translated in other passages, e.g., Matthew 5:48. The meaning is this: complete in discipline, finished or perfect in the sense in which we should speak of a piece of workmanship as perfect, when it has received the last touch of the workman's hand. [R. V., "every one when he is perfected."] So that when our Lord speaks of a man who is "perfect" being like his master, He means to describe the condition of a person who has received from his master, whoever that master may be, all the teaching and discipline which the master can give him, and He asserts that all that can be expected from such a finished disciple is that he shall be equal to his master; his master cannot raise him above himself; his master's acquirements are (as it were), the limit towards which the growth of the disciple tends. If this be the meaning of our Lord's words, we find in them an important warning not to His apostles only but to all teachers. The words show the necessity of those who would teach others growing in grace themselves; they must not expect that they can be worldly-minded and their disciples spiritual, that they can serve Mammon and their disciples serve God; and conversely, they may expect that as they grow more in the knowledge of their God and Saviour, their own growth in knowledge will reflect itself in their disciples, and tend to raise them to that point of spiritual life to which they themselves have already attained. (Bishop H. Goodwin.) Parallel Verses KJV: The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. WEB: A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.