Perfection According to God

There is no doubt we have a beautifully and wonderfully perfect God. So much so it actually staggers my mind. Recently, our pastor was giving a sermon on Matthew 5:43-­48: 


“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

This is Christ speaking as part of the Sermon on the Mount and what a challenge we see. If we start at verse 48, we see the command to be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. At this point our pastor said, “What is perfection according to God?” 

Well this has caused me to think. The dictionary says that perfection is the quality or state of being perfect. Digging deeper in Greek the word perfection is actually teleios and it means brought to its end; finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, full grown, adult, mature. 

So I see this image of being complete, a finished work, fully mature. Therefore, we must ask what are we lacking? Did you notice that in the middle of verse 48 there is a therefore? I was taught that when you see a therefore, you must ask what is the therefore there for. 

What is Christ telling us? He is telling us to love even our enemies and to pray for them. He is telling us that as believers this should be the difference and if there is no difference then what’s the difference? 

As I continue to think this through I realized that when I was an enemy of God he loved me still. Therefore, to be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect; love must be my foundation – loving God and loving others. 

Glorious and Perfect Father, thank you for your perfect love and your grace, thank you for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might truly love. Father, help us all to love you perfectly and help us to love others as you so perfectly love us.
Grace and Peace!

Dynamite

Romans 1:16 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 

This is a simply amazing statement that I have been spending some time thinking about and perhaps not in the way you might think. In this verse Paul tells us that as believers we should not be ashamed of the Gospel, because the Gospel is actually the power of God for salvation. 

So the good news of Jesus Christ actually contains the power of God. Dwell on that for a while. In this verse, the word power in Greek is actually Dynamis where we get the word dynamite. It is a rich word meaning an inherent power residing in a thing by the virtue of its nature; a power for performing miracles.  And how amazing is the miracle of salvation. 

And we all know that dynamite is so powerful that it is a power that must be handled with care. Bryan Chapell says of this verse: “The Word’s power to transform lives does not give Christians the right to bypass, manhandle, or abuse the dignity and thought of others. We proclaim God’s word because it is amazing, but not as if it is magic.” 

To try and bring these thoughts all together, we have a tremendous power in God’s word, which must be handled with great care, with compassion and with love. I think 2 Timothy 4:2 provides insight: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 

Father, thank you for the amazing power of your word; a power that in and of itself can transform hearts and lives. Father, help each of us to proclaim the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ with great patience and careful instruction all to your glory! 

Grace and Peace!

Extraordinarily Generous

I have been thinking about what it means to be a Christian. There is certainly a process of learning and growing in scriptures and theology and doctrine, but there is also an outflow of action. It is important to understand that this action comes only after understanding the grace, love and mercy; the free gift of life based on the extraordinarily generous and finished work of Christ, done on my behalf. 

It is understanding that there is nothing I can do to earn God’s favor, but also understanding that since God’s favor was earned for me by the loving sacrifice of Christ, my heart should overflow with love and gratitude. Then and only then does this outflow of action occur; this outflow of love and extraordinary generosity.  I worry sometimes we are so focused on understanding or what I call, theological precision that we fail to love. 

I think this is so beautifully described in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. 

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. 

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” 

So to me, the outflow is loving God with all we have and loving our neighbors as ourselves...we clearly see that Love is at the core of our Christian DNA and that love extends to our neighbors which is defined in this passage as anyone we come into contact with.  And this love is so much more than words or knowledge, it is emotion, but emotion with a purpose demonstrated by action.
 

J. I. Packer describes it so well in his book “Weakness is the Way”; “The essence of Christian existence is, after all, a matter not of labeling but of loving, and loving is a matter not of words but of action.” 

Father, thank you so much for loving us in such a fantastic and amazing way! Father, help us to grow in your word, but also help us to grow in deed being extraordinarily generous. Father, help us to love you more and more each day and help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Father, help us to Go and do likewise! Amen. 

Grace and Peace!

Submission

Early in my spiritual journey, I seemed to take exception to words like obedience and submission...I just didn’t understand. I wanted an easy faith; I wanted a friend in Jesus, a savior and not necessarily a Lord. I didn't want to give up my perception of freedom.  I struggled with this for a while and one day it just hit me that submission to one who was willing to forgive anything, to one who loved me steadfastly, to one who gave His life for me was the only thing that made sense.

Only with this submission am I truly free...free not to worry, free to love, free to care, free to worship, free to truly live. Only with this thing called submission can you truly understand relationships and grace and forgiveness and here it comes again freedom. 

I recently read a blog by the daughter of someone famous for apologetics where she has gone from growing up Christian to now claiming the title non­‐believer. It was heartbreaking and probably still is for her parents. In her blog she says that she didn’t regret growing up Christian because; “I wouldn’t understand what freedom truly is — freedom from a life centered around obedience and submission, freedom to think anything, freedom from guilt and shame, freedom from the perpetual heavy obligation to keep every thought pure. Nothing I’ve ever encountered in my life has been so breathtakingly beautiful. 

Freedom is my God now, and I love this one a thousand times more than I ever loved the last one.”

I guess I would just counter that her description of freedom means she is free to live a broken life centered on something of this world. Where I might say I am free to live a life centered on Christ and as such obedience and submission are a natural outcome because Christ first loved me, that I am free to live a life basking in grace free from guilt and shame due to the finished work of Christ on my behalf, free to turn back to the open arms of Christ whenever I mess up and that nothing in my life is so breathtakingly beautiful. 

I guess the thing that bothered me most about this blog was that she was certain she broke her mother’s heart and that she didn’t know the impact to her father as they haven’t spoken. Yet we all know there is hope and as the prodigal son returned to the open arms of the father I will pray for this family, I will pray for restoration and reconciliation and the hope of Christ for them all. 

It just seemed appropriate to end with Colossians 1: 9-­12;

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Amen.

Grace and Peace!