STRIVE FOR PERFECTION!

Emil SWIFT
Aug 27, 2017 · 3 min read

“We strive for perfection, knowing that nothing is perfect — but you can catch greatness in the process…”
— Heard on Your World with Neil Cavuto, 2015 /12/18.

This shows wisdom in light of the chaotic nature of this world and human nature — very similar, in fact, to the older proverb that one must, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars…”

But is this truly God’s advice? Consider that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demanded, “All of you, be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” [Mt 5.48]

How perfect is God? Does Jesus intend to say, “Shoot for the level of perfection My Father has, and at least you’ll land somewhere better off than if you don’t even try…” or “you’ll never be able to reach this goal, but at least you’ll get divine points for trying…”

Or does Jesus mean, “Be perfect as is My Father,” knowing that every person listening will never make it, that all will fail and that none will ever be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because every single human being will have failed to reach that same level of perfection that Father God has?

Personally, I doubt Jesus wanted his audience to hear His word and then water it down: “Oh… Jesus didn’t really mean divine perfection… because He knows that’s totally impossible!”

Therein lies the Key to understanding this seemingly insane command — and the entire Sermon on the Mount. Elsewise, Jesus explained it to His followers: “What is impossible for a mere person, is possible for God.”

Jesus wasn’t preaching so that the people would hear him and hitch up their robes and get to work doing a better job! NO! He preached a whole series of impossible things in the Sermon on the Mount in order to make people throw up their hands in disgust and say, Forget it! NO one can possibly fulfill that!

Which is what Jesus wanted! He wanted people to give up so they could give in to God’s provision of grace. When Jesus told his disciples that a rich man was as likely to get into the Kingdom of Heaven as a camel getting through the eye of a needle, they all exclaimed, “It’s impossible!” And Jesus agreed! Then he said, “What is impossible for man is possible for God!”

Jesus’ preaching focused entirely on preparing people to enter into the Kingdom of God by grace: what He taught has two, closely related focuses — (1) legalism (the belief that what one does or who they are by birth or wealth will insure their receiving God’s pleasure and enhance to the Kingdom); and (2) entrance into God’s eternal Kingdom is solely by grace, is impossible for man to accomplish, and is associated with a person’s trust and confidence in the existence and goodness of God.

It’s our union with Jesus Christ that is the basis of our salvation:

Jn 17.23: “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into One; that the world may know that You did send Me, and loved them even as You love Me.”

God will accomplish what is impossible for man — entrance into His eternal Kingdom — not by making individual Believers perfect, but by bringing all Believers into One in His Son (Jesus Christ) Who is perfect.

Em

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Emil SWIFT

Written by

Non-traditional, biblical teacher & mentor, who (until recently) lived for 35 years in a small mountain village near the Trinity Alps in northern California.

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