I would not list ‘mind-reading’ on my resume as a skill set that I possess, but I’d bet many of you when you read that verse immediately thought to yourself: “That certainly does not mean what it says!”
To which I would ask: Then why did He say that?
“Well…first of all, nobody is perfect and that word in the Greek actually means ‘complete’”, you might respond with.
Ok…so we are to be ‘complete’ just like our Father in heaven is ‘complete’. (whatever that means)
But for the sake of the posting today, I’ll stay with the word ‘perfect’. (and I don’t think it implies that I will shoot par golf every time I play or that you will make every basket you ever throw, or get a 100% on every school test you take, etc)
But Jesus still said it: “Be perfect…”.
And we know when He ‘says things’, Satan comes immediately (Mark 4:15) to either snatch the Word from your heart if you don’t understand it (lest you believe and are saved Luke 8:12). Or he may slither in like a serpent and plant seeds of doubt: “Has God really said?” (Gen 3:1)
Whatever your response is, there is no denying Jesus said “Be perfect”.
So what does ‘perfect’ look like?
Well, if you were in the group who immediately thought ‘nobody is perfect’, you might have conceded with: “except Jesus”.
Yep. He was.
So ‘perfect’ looks like…Jesus.
And Romans 8:29 states that whoever loves God is being…are you ready for this…’conformed’ to His likeness and image.
And 1 John 2:6 says ‘whoever abides in Him ought himself to walk… just like He walked.”
What are we going to do with that one?
Let’s see what else we might find in this bible.
In Hebrews 5, Paul had been exhorting some believers who were still seemingly stunted in their growth, implying they were still on ‘milk’ and should be ‘eating meat’ by this point.
He spurs them on with this admonition: ‘let us move on to perfection’. (6:1)
Yesterday, in my posting on the topic of ‘holiness’, I made mention of the verse in 2 Cor. 7:1 where we are reminded that ‘having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from ALL filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
Funny…how that word keeps popping up.
If you are taking notes, or better yet, have your bible open…maybe you can open up to 1 John 2:5 and read this aloud: “Whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him and by this we know that we are in Him.”
I started to add to my ‘mind reading’ comment at the start that if you lean towards the word ‘complete’ you probably wanted to also say that ‘we are complete in Him’ which sounds good. But what does that mean or look like…to be ‘in Him’?
To which I would have you go back and read that last verse above I just wrote out -again. (…when we keep His word…we know that we are in Him)
In the same book, 4:12, John again affirms the idea that “if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” (also see vs. 17).
This really should not be any new ‘revelation’ to us since we all know that Jesus gave us another commandment that we are to ‘love one another as He loved us’. (John 15:12) Keep in mind, it’s His love that is the standard, not ours. (See 1 Cor 13)
In fact I would submit to you that we are incapable of ‘loving others as He loved us’ unless we have His nature. Peter even hints at the idea that we can or should be ‘partakers of His divine nature’. (2 Peter 1:4)
So how does this all play out? Well, contrary to popular opinion and ‘easy-believism-theology’ prevalent today, it’s not automatic because you make some profession of faith. It is part of the process of sanctification and the walk of salvation where we do this thing called ‘take up a cross, follow and obey’.
And if you think there is another way into heaven, well…you may want to reexamine some scripture.
Do we not read in Acts 14:22 that “we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God”?
Did Peter tell us to ‘think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you’? (1 Peter 4:12)
Go back and read verses 1 at the start of that chapter where he says that since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, we are to arm ourselves with the same mind for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
“Ceased from sin”?
Why…that’s impossible. Nobody can do that.
Have we still Not learned to NOT tell God what is ‘impossible’? …sigh….
Peter went on to encourage us in 5:8-10 that brothers around the world experience the same ‘suffering’ when dying to self and this flesh nature. But ‘after you have suffered awhile, the God of all grace will come and….(are you ready for it?) …perfect you…(vs 10)
James chimes in with the opening in his letter telling us to ‘count it all joy’ when we face these test and trials (that Peter mentions) ‘knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience…but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (Ha…looks like we got a 2-for-1 there with both words: ‘perfect’ AND ‘complete’.)
So let me see if I can tie all this together.
We were originally created in the image and likeness of God. (Gen 1:26) Who was holy and perfect, by the way.
Sin messed all that up. We inherited a fallen, sin-filled and selfish flesh nature which actually is the image of Satan’s nature and character.
Jesus came to not only redeem and reconcile us back to God, He came to make us a ‘new creation’ which is why we need to be ‘born again’ with the ‘incorruptible seed’ of His word.
This is what the walk of salvation is all about.
If we are not following, we are not being redeemed and conformed back to His image. (Rom 8:29)
We are warned to ‘not fall short’ and to ‘endure to the end’ and be ‘confident that He will finish the work He began in us’. Even Paul expressed his concerns for young believers in Galatians experiencing ‘birth pains until Christ is formed in them.’ (4:19)
It goes back to being led by His spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. Those who are led by Him are the sons/children of God. (Rom 8:13-14) The only way we can be perfected in His love is to remove everything that is counter to it…which is all our flesh nature. When we balk at not letting go of some of those things, we halt the process.
We are in effect telling God that we love something else more than Him.
One last passage for today - Matthew 19:16-22. It’s our friend, the rich, young ruler. He was ‘so close’ to being there when he asked Jesus “What do I still lack?”
Look at verse 21 and see what Jesus told him: “If…you want to be ____________ (guess what word goes in there- starts with a ‘p’).
He fell short. You might say he was unwilling to go in and ‘possess the land’. Why?
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