“Therefore be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48
If we could live the way Jesus has told us to, then we would truly be perfect. We would never hate, slander or speak evil of another person. We would never lust in our heart or mind, nor covet anything, or make false oaths, but rather we would always be completely truthful. If we were perfect as Jesus is perfect, then we would let GOD defend our personal rights, and not take it upon ourselves to defend them, and we would always love our neighbors, and enemies as we love ourselves.
The Bible says the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ and that we are perfect in Him. It’s the same Greek word that is used here; “be ye therefore perfect”. It is the same meaning as being complete or being perfect in Him. To present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding love. That’s just how he’s going to present us when we stand before God, complete in Jesus Christ.
Only the grace of God can do that for us. You see, the law of God condemns us all to death. I thank God that he has provided that help that we all need through forgiveness from the beginning when we accepted His Son as our Lord and Savior;
“ being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; ” Philippians 1:6
IF, is a big word, and thus we know we fail daily, I know I do. So, strike one. I didn’t make it. Yet He knows we are still locked in this body of flesh, and that our flesh battles against the spirit daily. Thus we are not yet perfect nor complete as long as we allow the flesh to rule. Paul wrote of this conflict to the Romans;
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Romans 8:18-25
So what is our remedy. It is knowing that the Lord picks us up and sustains us. Knowing that in our mind and our heart we desire God and God’s best for our life, and the desire to serve Him with all that we have and with all that we are. Then and only then, Our GOD who can see the heart will know we are doing all we can to stay true to HIM by doing our best to be perfect just as HE is perfect.
I pray those who have ears to hear will hear His voice and call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen
Leave a Reply