Christ is the target

“The Bible presents the ideal, but it never happens here in this life,” according to a young woman. She figures that because the standard is so high, some difficult passages of Scripture can be ignored on that basis and that we have to wait for heaven to experience perfection.

I’ve been thinking about her reasoning. I could say that aiming at a bull’s eye and missing it is better than not aiming at all, but I don’t think that is the best answer. Sin is defined as “missing the mark” which is about shooting an arrow that fall short of the target. Deciding that we will always fall short is the same as saying that sin will always win — so why bother fighting it? This is not what the Bible says.

Not only that, in my experience, sin does not always win. My attempts to be godly will always need improvement, but choosing obedience over sin is a victory. What I do may have flaws, but obedience is always different from sin.

I’m not sure if this has anything to do with today’s devotional reading, but because it is so much on my mind, I needed to write it down. The verse today is about honoring other Christians.

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. (Romans 12:10)

The original words say something like this: “Love one another with mutual affection, outdo one another in showing honor.” Yesterday I learned that the words used here for love and affection refer to family love and brotherly love. These are descriptive of the attitudes of caring family members toward one another and this caring is often natural and easy to do.

The last part of the verse, “outdo one another in showing honor,” brings a chuckle as I think of a friendly family competition to see who can do it best. “You can sit here.” “No, you sit here. You are more important” and so on. However, I’m sure this is not what the Bible has in mind.

My devotional reading gives an example. It says that we often flatter others in the hope of having the compliment returned or to gain favor with them, but instead, we are supposed to express real appreciation, respect, and love without having any personal gain or interest in mind. There is a sacrificial aspect to giving honor.

Those who are devoted to brotherly love will give preference to others in genuine humility without “thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think” (see Romans 12:3) because this is a characteristic of Jesus Christ who lives in them. The idea of “giving preference” is what Jesus did when He went to the cross for us. In His mind and heart, we are more important than He is. Because of this attitude, He was willing to die so we could live.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus . . . (Philippians 2:3-5)

It is not difficult to “let this mind be in” me. Scripture says that because I believe in Jesus, I have the mind of Christ! How amazing!

Obviously God wants His mind to be the source of my thinking. From His mind came ideas like: “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). It was also from His mind that I am told “we are more than conquerors” and that my faith “overcomes the world.”

The young woman infers that if we cannot be perfect, what is the point? But she errs. The New Testament is filled with verses about conquering sin. Obedience does not mean perfection, but it does mean that Christians do not have to keep sinning and falling short. Besides, Christ lives in us and He is our perfection. We will never be perfect without Him and we cannot have any victory over sin without Him. The truth is that when we obey, even if it is only occasionally and our efforts seem feeble, because of Jesus we can hit the bull’s eye.