“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.
