“Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” –
Matthew 5:48
This Wednesday my church (Christ Sanctified Holy Church) will
be having the first of what I believe to be many Q&A Bible studies.
The questions that we will be addressing are a direct result of e-mails from
our internet congregation. So, in true John Wesley fashion, we will take
a question, open the Bible, and see what the Word has to say on the subject;
then endeavor to answer it, by the help of the Holy Ghost.
In preparation for this study the congregation was asked to
answer each question individually, and then we will discuss collectively on
Wednesday night; intrigued by one of the questions I felt defiantly lead to
post.
Question:
Does God expect perfection?
Short
Answer: Yes.
Long
Answer:
Christian perfection is a widely misunderstood and misrepresenting
concept. The charge to perfection was made very plain by our Savior, therefore
the means of attaining to it must be equally as plain; and they are, Jesus
himself made sure of it before his death.
God wants your heart. If you read the Sermon on the Mount carefully
(Matthew 5-8) you will find that Jesus speaks to issues deeper than the
physical. He calls for righteous that goes deeper than just what your
hand does; he wants to cleanse all the way to what your heart intends. I
find it no coincidence that he starts his ministry with a sermon about the heart
and ends his ministry with a sermon about the heart (John 14-17). The
perfection is found in your heart; a perfect heart is a holy heart. What
God wants to perfect is your inclination to disobey. If I break my
finger, my body is now less than perfect; am I now condemned to hell because I
am no longer perfect? No. There is no disobedience found in a
broken finger. Imperfection in God’s eyes is rooted in disobedience to
God, direct disobedience to God is sin, and sin is rooted in carnality (the
inbreed desire to sin against God). Carnality is found in the heart of
man, and it is that which needs to be eradicated by the Holy Ghost. When
the Holy Ghost comes in it will remove that want to sin and “sanctify” your
heart to the service of God; manifesting in your life a “perfect” love for God,
and a “perfect” love for man. It is this love that brings: peace, joy,
contentment, obedience, wisdom, and all the fullness and goodness of God; as
John Wesley once wrote: “the doctrine of Christian Perfection can be summed up
in one word, namely this, Love.” (Source: A
Plain Account of Christian Perfection)
God expects you to have a perfect heart, and you get there by repenting of your
sins and the absolute surrendering of yourself (death). After this work of grace one must invite
Jesus, in the person of the Holy Ghost, to come in and “take up his abode with
you” (resurrection). By this very action God gives you a new heart that
is conformed to the image of himself: holy, pure, clean…….perfect; and when he
has your heart, he has you.
Comments,
Questions, Thoughts, etc. welcomed at pgcollins65@gmail.com
