But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in
heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48
Those who listen to instruction will prosper;
those who trust the Lord will be joyful. Proverbs 16:20
About the same time as Mary
Poppins entered the scene, Mac Davis introduced us to his version:
When you’re perfect in every way
I just can’t wait to look in the mirror,
‘Cause I get better looking each day
Now, those were fun things,
Mary Poppins, and an arrogant cowboy…priceless!
But Jesus laid out a tougher plan; He said we should be perfect. What’s a believer to do with that?
The founder of Methodism,
John Wesley, believed[1] it was
possible for followers of Jesus to achieve spiritual perfection – to the point
of not sinning by being unloving.
Indeed, he held that God expected
it. Wesley believed the pursuit
of Christian perfection in love should shape our lives here on earth.
To become “perfect,” one
would have to get rid of a whole shopping-list of bad things. The problem is that we love those things
because we have a base nature that tends to get worse, not better.
Reality says that if you are
not 100% perfectly-clean you are
still dirty. In a spiritual sense, you
are not clean, simply by quitting one or two bad habits and going to
church. That is reformation;
speaking of which, we are right at the 503rd anniversary of The
Reformation started by Martin Luther. This
was rearranging church life and thought to get it right. It didn’t.
Every denomination, church, and believer in the body of Christ hasn’t
gotten it perfect….ever!
If you get rid of all the
bad habits, go to church all the time, go on visitation, sing in the choir, and
give all your money…well, that is incredible reformation. And it still isn't perfection!
In fact, that's not even
what God requires, or what He wants! God
doesn’t really want your reformation;
God requires a transformation! And only the grace of God can do that!
Now, there are a lot of different
ideas of exactly what Jesus meant by telling us to “be perfect” or morally healthy. It takes a lot of thought to get our minds
around this one. We know ourselves, and
we know how hard it is just to stay on a diet, or quit smoking, or quit cussing.
But to do it all – to actually be perfect before God….that is a
monumental concept.
John Wesley’s sermon on
Christian Perfection (going on in this life to perfection in love) is over 20
pages long (be thankful this one is only 4!).
So, where do you start? How is it possible to be perfect in love? How do
you do that? How do you change? The answer is, YOU don't! Christ
does it in you!
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and
will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.[2]
The word “purify” (or
“cleanse”) is much different than the washcloth plan I tried to pass off as
having cleaned Russell. Beloved, when
Jesus cleans you, not even your mother can find a dirty spot!
Now, if this is the starting
point, where is the finish line? How can
we (as Wesley asked Methodists two centuries ago)…how can we “go on to
perfection in love”?
I believe with all my heart
that the answer to that question is two-fold:
1. RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOU CANNOT DO IT
Only God can create in you
the kind of moral character that “perfection” suggests. Everywhere in Scripture we are told to follow-after
Jesus and his righteousness (see Matthew 6:33).
But it is not following-after-to-catch righteousness that we are
urged to do; rather it is in the following-after we will find ourselves
transformed[3] by the
righteousness of Jesus Christ!
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2
2. Commit to the truth that the longer you give yourself to Christ’s will,
without reservation, totally abandoned to His leading, the more you will become
like Him, and less like your old self.
Committing to this truth
means you will find yourself loving others even if they don’t love you back.
It has been said that the
Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint.
It was never truer of something than this one issue.
Elizabeth and I got married
on February 12, 1967….and a lot of changes have taken place…yes, sir! Hanging out with her for the past nearly 54 years has changed the little boy who tried to
convince mama with a “little-dab’l-do-ya” washcloth. Now there are no socks dropped on the floor
(mostly), crumbs routinely left on the table , or messy garage (occasionally). And do you know what? I now like it that way!
It is the same way with
hanging out with Christ – there will be changes…you will be going-on to having
your ability to love increase towards perfection as you learn to submit to His
leadership.
That’s what the Apostle Paul
found out. He first met Jesus on the
road to Damascus. He followed Jesus for the
next 30 or more years, still learning. But
one thing he’d learned and found to be unequivocally-true, and the most
important thing about Christian perfection:
when you hang out with Jesus you learn to love what Jesus loves, and,
keeping your eyes on Jesus, the rest somehow fades away…
It’s
much like Helen Lemmel’s hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:
…and the things of
earth will grow strangely dim, in
the light of his glory and grace.[4]
So…you want Christian
perfection? Say it with Paul:
I want to know
Christ…this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and
straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:10a, 13b-14 (NRSV)
Father
help us to let go of this world’s ways so we can prosper in the ways of Your
blessed Kingdom.
For
the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we
pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the
Majesty of the Father.
Let
it be so in each of our lives…Amen!
Title Image:
Pixabay.com
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation Matthew
10:24-39©
[1] John Wesley, sermon #40
“Christian Perfection”: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/40/
[2] 1 John 1:9
[3] Romans 12:1,2
[4] Lemmel, Helen, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, The
United Methodist Hymnal (1922 Nashville, UMC Publishing House) No. 349
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