Theists: What do you mean when you say that God is 'perfect'?

[Godscreated]

In a recent conversation with a theist, I asked what makes something 'perfect'.  Their response was that something is perfect if it is "maximally ideal for its intended purpose."  I see this as basically correct.  What makes something a perfect coffee maker would make that same thing a lousy microwave oven, and vice versa.  It seems that to be perfect, a thing must be in some relation to a purpose or an end or a goal such that it maximally fulfills that end.  But here we come upon a problem, because God doesn't have such.  There is no end or purpose or goal which is defined for God.  It would seem at first glance then, that the word simply doesn't apply to God.  If I had a nondescript object on my kitchen counter which had no purpose, what would it mean for me to say that it is 'perfect'?  The best that could be said is that I'm using the word 'perfect' as a superlative, like saying that something is 'super' or 'awesome'.  Yet theists continually assert that their God is 'perfect' and seem to want to mean something more by it than just a superlative, but what do they mean?  Some take the lazy way out and claim that God's perfectness applies to "everything" -- God has all possibilities in the maximal degree, but this is clearly incoherent.  An object which contained all perfections (whatever that means) would include perfect justice and perfect mercy. Since justice consists in giving people what they deserve, and mercy consists in giving people less than they deserve, the two can't be perfectly fulfilled at the same time.  So the 'everything' answer is ruled out.

So what do you mean when you say that God is 'perfect'?

 Why would we apply perfection to anything or anyone, nothing is perfect because to be perfect it/they would need to last forever without any outside influence or help. Man's morals don't seem to last very long at all so they are out, man himself last only a few years so scratch him of the list. Whatever man builds eventually falls into ruin and has to be rebuilt over and over, scratch these thing off, too. Everything in nature dies or is in someway changed over time, nothing ever stays the same. Even something as wonderful as water changes, going from liquid to gas to a solid. I think you see where I'm going, nothing is perfect because it changes. God doesn't change, He is the same now as He was in the past and He will be the same in the eternal future. God has lasted for an eternity and is complete within Himself not because He is perfect but because He is the only eternal being and there can never be another. 

To answer another statement you made, God did not make His moral values, to do so would imply that God was created and had to grow into what He is now, God has always existed as who He is now and will always exist as the same. God has no beginning and no end yet he has seen all of eternity, this is what is meant by His eternal nature and because of this nature He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent and with regard to these attributes God is perfect in all ways. God is the eternal standard not because He says He is but because it is who He has always been, even before the creation. True there was no one to follow his standards and God himself doesn't have to follow them they are who He is, who he has been and who He will always be, the unchanging eternal God.

As for God's perfect justice, He can not be anything but perfect in His justice because He has perfect knowledge due to His omniscience. God will give out perfect justice to the unjust which is all of mankind, including Christians. Those who choose to reject who God is choose to be judged by Him and then accept the judgement they deserve. Those who have chosen not to go through that particular judgement will be shown the judgement of mercy because their judgement was put upon another and God will not see what they deserve because it has already been paid for and there is no balance due. The reason there will be no balance due is due to the perfect price that was paid for the imperfect people and that price was paid by God himself so that He could give us the judgement of mercy through the grace of salvation.

GC