As Christians, are we meant to be Perfect?
Have you ever wondered if we can ever be perfect in a world like ours? For years I found it hard to understand how possible this was, especially with a heart like mine.
With a thousand thoughts ricocheting around the walls of my mind and a life I could hardly control, how was I supposed to be perfect?
I’ve seen the look people give me when I tell them God desires us to be perfect. It feels like a herculean task, an impossible feat. And I’m beginning to understand why.
While we have a school of thought on one side of the spectrum that says Man can never be perfect and no one is, we have people who already believe they are.
Some also believe our perfection has to do with the jewelries we wear, the extensions we put on or the things we eat.
Both are wrong.
God is a Spirit, so we must worship him in Spirit and truth, not through our assumptions and understanding of perfection.
But you are to BE perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
It's easy to believe God was being theoretical when he echoed these words through Jesus. But what if the problem lies in our misunderstanding of the word 'Perfection'?
Perfection: World vs Word
First of all, we need to understand that God's definition of perfection is different from how the world defines perfection.
As an introvert, I grew up having perfectionistic tendencies and dreams, but that kind of perfection was birthed from flesh and not the Spirit of God.
My own understanding of perfection was based on my own standards not God's.
And anytime God tried to lead me outside my standards, it made me afraid and anxious.
It disrupted my own plans and ways when I would rather settle than obey God out of my comfort zone
Here's an example
If God demands that I give my friend Bola a red dress, God is going to judge me based on that specific instruction he gave me, nothing more than that.
But if I go ahead and buy 10 red dresses for 10 children because I love that particular red dress too much and would rather keep it than give it out, then I've missed out on His standards.
People may praise me highly for giving those kids the 10 dresses, but to God, I haven't done anything but my own righteousness.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
1Corinthians 13:3
I hope this paints a clearer picture of God's perfection to us.
Abraham was specifically asked to offer Isaac, the Son Abraham loved, not Ishmael or any other. According to God, he brings his word and it is in obeying that WORD we meet His standards.
When we obey His commandments, like life saving pills, they save us from who we were and brings us into a new alignment with His will.
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God PERFECTED: hereby we know that we are in Him
1John 2:5
God's perfection is according to His standards, not the world. And he measures out this through commandments he whispers into our hearts.
We change within as we obey Him. This is a perfection process.
Jesus met God the Father's standards but was still rejected by the world. So our attaining perfection and becoming like Jesus will not make us more acceptable to the world.
God's perfection has a foundation-Christ
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2Corinthians 5:21
God didn't save us because we were perfect. He didn't welcome us into Heaven because we met his standards. No one met his standards.
Not a single soul!
But God saved us to make us perfect. He saved us to make us grow into His image and likeness and become exactly like Jesus, his first begotten Son in the process.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Our believing in Jesus is the first step to our spirit salvation, and the end/final step will result in our soul salvation where we transform into the image of Christ.
So everything we do must be birthed from the Spirit of God, not our flesh.
This is the reason why God's leading is important.
We must learn to discern if our flesh is leading us or the Spirit of God. Our daily choices determines how much step we are willing to take into perfection.
Compare Scriptures with Scriptures
In the bible, the word perfection is mentioned a couple of times, so it would be ignorant of us to dismiss this word, settle with our imperfections and live in denial of God's word.
If the Patriarchs in the Old testament attained a certain 'perfection' and righteousness in their time without the HolySpirit, then we who have the God living inside of us shouldn't settle for less.
We should do better.
Job attained perfection with God during his time. God declared Him BLAMELESS, saying there was no one like Him on Earth.
Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
Job 1:8
Same with Noah
This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a RIGHTEOUS man, BLAMELESS AMONG THE PEOPLE of his TIME, and he walked faithfully with God.
Genesis 6:9
Abraham
And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called a friend of God.
James 2:23
Abraham's belief in God was reflected in the offering of His Son Isaac. Our obedience to God is the evidence of our belief/trust of God's word.
In the New Testament, when we believe God's word, we obey Him. But when we doubt and love our lives above His, we disobey and settle into our flesh's voice.
We then cheat ourselves of the perfection God is calling us into.
But let patience have its PERFECT work, that you may be PERFECT and COMPLETE, lacking nothing.
James 1:4
Yield yourself to Grace
For the GRACE of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, TEACHING us that, DENYING ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Titus 2:11-12
We can do nothing of ourselves, so we must allow GRACE teach us how to live a life pleasing unto God.
We need to understand that God will never give us more than what we can handle.
When he sends his commandments, he adds a pillow of grace which propels us into doing it.
We disregard and abuse grace when we still go on to do what we like.
God sent Jesus that we might live an abundant life. An abundant life isn't the one that still struggles with sin or wallows in sin.
Life eternal isn't an escape into Heaven. Jesus lived a sinless life on earth.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent
John 17:3
Jesus didn't die for us to keep living like sinners. He came to give us Eternal life: knowing God and coming into His fullness.
He didn't shed all that blood that we may manage our sins and keep an epileptic faith.
No! He died so we can be like Him and know Him inside out. He desires that we enjoy Him to the fullest.
And his will is that we become like Him, in deed and truth.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness; to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ
2 Peter 1:5
This shouldn't make us worried about perfection, but confidently believe that he who began a good work in us will make it perfect.
Being confident of this very thing, that he, who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6
Bloom with Love. Xx!