Does God expect perfection?

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” – Matthew 5:48

Some time ago, my church (Christ Sanctified Holy Church) had a series of Q&A Bible studies.  The questions that were addressed were a direct result of e-mails from our internet congregation.  So, in true John Wesley fashion, we took a question, opened the Bible, to see what the Word had to say on the subject; and then endeavored to answer it, by the help of the Holy Ghost.  Intrigued by one of the questions I felt defiantly lead to post it again.

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.