Perfect

PERFECT

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so?  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  Mat 5:44-48.

If 99.9% of the church goers today are supposed to be what we call Christian, then the Bible is a lie.  I suppose it is a book with impossible demands, because no one is even trying to live by the words within it.  The “modern” Christian is not being conformed to the image of Christ contained in scripture, they are being conformed to the world, and have become too blind to see the difference.

There is no surer way to make people stop pressing and striving in Christian perfection than to tell them it is impossible.  Where did the teaching originate that says God does not expect us to be perfect?  It is not in the Bible; in fact the verse above commands us to seek perfection in God.

False doctrines of the church have so conditioned modern believers to the lie that they cannot be perfect, that they no longer even try.  They are so accustomed to will worship, that you cannot even talk to them about being fervent in the faith.  Their answer, Nobody’s perfect, only Jesus was perfect and I just believe He will save me in spite of me.

It is in this looking after, and through, the flesh that makes others teach the unbiblical principle that perfection is not attainable.  If believers would trust God and read their Bibles instead of trusting man’s opinion on the matter, they would find that there are more passages that declare freedom from committing sin than there are that talk about God’s punishing of sin.

God has existed from eternity, and enjoys natural perfections that we will never possess such as self-existence, immutability, eternal being, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and sovereignty.  We can never achieve these perfections of God.  These perfections have always existed in God.  He did not create Himself and give these perfections to Himself.  As He would say, “I AM THAT I AM.”  This cannot be the perfection the Bible insists upon for us.

God is also morally perfect.  However, for God He is infinitely moral.  He has always and forever will be moral and possessing these attributes: holiness, righteousness, love, truth.

We have all sinned, so it is impossible that we will ever have these perfections in an infinite capacity.  Therefore, God does not insist that we be infinitely moral, since it is an impossibility.

“Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.” Deu 18:13.

“Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I [am] the LORD your God.  And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I [am] the LORD which sanctify you.”  Lev 20:7-8.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Joh 14:15.

“Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.  For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”  Rev 22:14-15.

It is clear from Scripture that the only area left in which we can be perfect is in obedience to accepting justification in Christ and following God’s will and His word.  Repent and sin no more was Jesus’ teaching when He was here on earth.  God’s word commands us to show the same unselfish love that He displays, back to Him and toward our neighbor, which is the whole of the law. 

Now, you cannot say you will keep these two commandments but not the rest.  The Bible makes it clear that all the law hangs on these two commandments.  If you fail in keeping other commandments, you are for sure violating these two as well.  That is just a fact of the case, because all of God’s moral laws are actuated on the same principle of benevolent love. 

Therefore, to covet, murder, steal, fornicate, practice homosexuality, commit adultery, or any moral sin according God’s word is to also fail to love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. 

For example, if a person says they love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbor, yet, practices homosexuality, he is in fact violating the greatest commandment which is love to God.  He does this by violating God’s natural design and initial commands to man.

As you can see in the verses identified above, God commands us to be holy and keep His commandments.  If God said it, it must be possible, and the wicked teacher that says it is impossible, let him be Anathema Maranatha. 

Really, someone is calling God a liar, telling God it is impossible to be perfect and keep His commandments contrary to what the Bible teaches.  The reasons most find it impossible to obey God is because they cling to the things of the world and their fleshy desires above God and resist His Spirit.  Enoch was perfect (Gen 5:24), Noah was perfect (Gen 6:9), Abraham (Gen 17:1), Job (Job 1:1), David (1Ki 9:4), Asa (1Ki 15:14), Hezekiah (2Ki 20:3), Daniel (Eze 14:20), Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luk 1:6), and Paul (Act 23:1), just to name a few.

Answer this, you who weaken the hands of those seeking to find God and attain to the image of perfection He commands, how much less perfect are we to be under the Gospel than the perfection God required under the law?  You take great pleasure in telling people to stop trying, so, tell us where we should stop. 

Is it up to us to decide where we will stop as individuals?  I believe you exist Lord, but I am going to stop there, I like my homosexual sin; besides, the preacher (not the Bible) told me we can’t be perfect anyway, we always sin. 

Who gave you the authority to decide or teach where an individual should stop in striving for perfection in God, or to teach the impossibility of perfection contrary to God’s word?  Hear this, you who trust and teach that believers can continue in open sin with no consequence; the truth is, those who are true to God and His word know that the closer you get to Him the more you desire to obey Him and hate evil. 

A teaching that leads you away from obeying God, and rather allows you to follow your own selfish desires is from the pit of hell.  And since that is what you love to do, you had better start warming up to the idea of discovering first hand this truth.

Well, God loves me and He would never send anyone to hell.  He has no choice in the matter; He is as obliged to keep the law as much as He demands us too.  The Gospel does not dispel obedience.  His work on the cross justifies you to allow you to seek the perfection He commands out of a pure heart. 

If you willingly deny His gift, and choose rather to cling to a sinful lifestyle, you are testifying against yourself that His work is meaningless.  You will send yourself to hell, and when the light floods in on the Day of Judgment, you will fully agree that it is hell you chose all along. 

The Lord’s righteousness made His sacrifice acceptable to cleanse away your repented sins; and that righteousness, through faith, by the Mediator, before the court makes you “lawfully” righteous.  But the Lord’s obedience that secured His right of mediation is not yours but His.

You have to obey now, and conform to His will and commands or else mediation is not possible.  You will not find a verse in the Bible that denies this truth.  It is the truth, and it quickens and cuts to the heart of the matter.  Consider the Lord’s words:

“Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God.  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.  Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word.  Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.  And because I tell [you] the truth, ye believe me not.”  Joh 8:41-45.

If you trust in that earthly carnal wisdom that says it is impossible to be perfect in God, know that you are trusting in a lie instead of God.  God commands perfection, and He has done everything required to allow it to flourish in your life; only, you have to surrender to His will and deny your own. 

There are only a finite number of choices this truth produces.  It is mostly denied.  The world and the lost will not even hear it because it is snatched so quickly from their hearts.  It cuts the hypocrite to the bone, and it will anger them to the point of crucifying the messenger (real or conjecturally), through substantiations most relevant to themselves.  However, the true believer’s heart knows this to be God’s will and promise; God will save and perfect them in holiness. 

Following God is what they naturally love to do because He has made them new creatures that long for His holiness.  This is not focusing on sin, it is receiving the gift that allows you to overcome sin and be perfect through singleness of heart to God.

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  2Co 7:1.

“For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.  He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.”  1Th 4:7-8.

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”  1Pe 1:13-16.

“Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:”  Heb 12:14.

There is no excuse in these verses.  If God, nowhere in the Bible indicates that it is impossible to be holy, perfect, or sanctified, why would you allow others to remove your voluntary efforts in trying by giving you the devilish excuse that it is impossible? 

When you fully give up yourself to God and His will; when your will is totally joined to His, then sin’s grip is broken entirely.  It is because folks want to do their own thing, and follow their own will that they seek excuses to remain in sin. 

Do you want to know why the world denounces the Christian God, and sees Him as impossible or none existent?  It is because they cannot reconcile what the Bible actually teaches with the false excuses that so-called believers use to circumvent His word.  That’s right, nominal Christians are the biggest hypocrites they know, and your religion is a joke because you fail to trust it wholly and instead excuse it as impossible. 

In society today, the divide between secular Christianity and the world cannot be seen; whereas, the divide between true Christianity and the world is more pronounced.  The world has become more vocal against true Christianity; but now, because of the hypocrisy of every secular church, the nominal Christians are starting to join the world’s mockery of that which is true to God. 

They have no respect for God and His word because supposed Christians have no respect for God and His word.  To them it is impossible, and the world agrees with them, and the world is beginning to take it to the next level and dismiss Christianity altogether.

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.   As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.   And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”  Joh 17:17-19.

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed [thereto] according to thy word.”  Psa 119:9.

“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep [it], and bring forth fruit with patience.”  Luk 8:15.

“That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”  Eph 5:26-27.

“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.”  Tit 2:14-15.

One could spend days looking up Scriptures telling us to be perfect, holy, or sanctified.  “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  God cannot say it with any more force than the opening passage indicates, and each one after that only reaffirms His command. 

Just as God desires the sinner to repent, He desires the convert’s perfection and obedience to His word and truth.  You can let the false teachers tell you all day it is impossible, but I am believing His word, and I am going to keep seeking God’s face.  I am not settling for anything less than all of God, and I am not going to let some man or doctrine of devils’ tell me it is impossible when my Father in heaven says that it is possible. 

It is time the world witnessed true believers, not these carnal excusers that love sin more than God.  It is no wonder the false-grace believers question the need for repentance if they deny His command for perfection. 

I challenge you to find that God does not require, in this world, our perfect sanctification, and that He does not will it, and that it is unattainable according to the Bible.  And if no man can prove this, why would you take man’s word that it is impossible?

God requires perfect obedience to His moral commands; His law requires perfect love for Him and toward our neighbor.  We are to act, feel, apply the same principles, be as selfless, separated, holy, to hate what He hates, and to be as moral as God in practice, and nothing short of this is the perfection God commands.

God is worthy of such devotion because there is none other good but God.  He is the ultimate purpose in your life, no other purpose can compare.  If He does not occupy your being wholly, you are not worthy of Him. 

The things you cling to that impede you from conforming to the command to love God supremely are the wood, hay, and stubble of the flame of destruction.  God does not only command your perfection in His word, but it is your duty:

“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”  Luk 17:10.

Nothing less than serving God with singularity of heart and purpose in conformity to His will and commands through the power of the Holy Ghost is the perfection God requires.  If you are following anything else you are not following the God of the Bible.