SJ,
You said......
"First, you have misunderstood the words of my Lord when he said that we must be 'perfect' as my Father is 'perfect'. That 'perfection' had to do with being 'perfect'... in love. Loving our ENEMIES, rather than just those we consider friends. You might want to go back to verse 43... and start there."
You have assumed that I have misunderstood this. I've never liked assumptions. They always impede communication. And yet I am guilty of making one when I assumed that we all had the same understanding of the word perfection. Rather than fussing over who has misunderstaood the term and who has not, let's go to the Dictionary and use a generally accepted definition of perfect.
I have picked the American Heritage Dictionary more or less at random, but you are welcome to go to http://www.onelook.com/ and choose from a number of dictionaries to compare and contrast the various definitions of 'perfect'. I think that you will find them all to be pretty consistent. As with all dictionaries, the American Heritage supplies a number of definitions, startng with the most common and moving to the more specialized and least-used. I am quite certain that the scriptures did not tell us to have pistils and stamens as our father who is in heaven has pistils and stamens.... so I think we can throw out that one. I propose that the most common definition is the one we are most likely to agree on.
My next mistake was in assuming that I could briefly mention a well-known bible verse and everyone who read my question would understand that God wants us to be perfect like Him. Obviously, a few more examples are called for:
Deut. 18;13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
1Kings 8;61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
2Cor 13;11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
2 Tim3;17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
James 1;4 But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
And as long as we are on the subject, here is one of my favorites, wherein Jesus gives us explicit directions in how to be perfect:
Matt 19;21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me. I can't help marvelling at how few of us are really willing to follow Jesus' instructions in this regard.
Now... with our definiton of 'perfect' identified, and with multiple references to show that our Heavenly Father wants us to be perfect in the same way (AS... and WITH) as him, can we return to my original question?
"If God has no need for faith, being all-knowing, and if we are commanded to be perfect as and with God, shouldn't we be more diligent about obtaining knowledge than we are about having or obtaining faith?"