Be perfect as God is perfect?

It has been said that true discipleship means I should always be involved in life in such a way that what I do cannot be explained by any other reason except that it happens by the power of God.

Elihu said to Job, “How great is God—beyond our understanding….” (Job 36:26) The average person doesn’t understand His power. To them, prayer is a puzzle. To them, successfully rebuking rising flood waters in the name of Jesus (as some did in the High River flood) is a puzzle, never mind that the name of Jesus has such power.

To them, a changed life is also a puzzle for they cannot imagine people being transformed. Without faith in Jesus Christ, the human mind cannot see that He is God the Son, God appearing in human flesh that we might know Him personally and in that knowing, begin to understand the greatness of God. Such knowledge is beyond mere human comprehension.

However, Christians can also be stopped in their tracks by the ideals of the Christian life, ideals that appear beyond us. When Jesus said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), the disciples may have shook their heads and stroked their beards in total bewilderment. How can this be? How can I be perfect like God is perfect? This command makes me shake my head.

Yet in context, Jesus was talking about being generous to all. As Oswald Chambers puts it, my natural life has affinities; some people I like and others not so much. However, I must never let those likes and dislikes rule my Christian life. If I walk in the light as God is in the light, then He will give me communion with people for whom I have no natural affinity. That is a puzzle but in Christ, also a possibility.

Notice Jesus does not lift up other people as an example of this, but God Himself. I am to live in such a way that my attitude toward others is the attitude God has shown toward me.

Oh my, I have been forgiven much! He has given me grace beyond all expectations, generous love that makes me weep for joy. When Chambers says I am to be “therefore perfect” then this is the perfection he means.

He also says that God will give me ample opportunities in actual life to prove whether I am perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect. That is, to be a disciple means that I deliberately identify myself with God’s interests in other people, that I love others as He has loved me, and I will get many opportunities to do so.

It is only because the Holy Spirit has transformed my life that I can display His characteristics in my life, not merely good human qualities, nor merely my own efforts to try to be godly. This means the supernatural can make godlikeness happen in me through His grace and power. This works out in daily life and cannot be explained by anything else except that God is doing it.

Today’s regular devotional reading adds to this call to perfection with a call to courage and sacrifice. Loving others requires both. As I bow in humility before the Lord, He offers me a new capacity for life. Like the saints of old, this capacity makes possible the conquering of kingdoms, the application of justice. They gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of flames. Their weakness was turned to strength, they became powerful in battle, and they loved the unlovely in the great courage God gave them.

What is true of this courage is true also of sacrifice. For them, it was not a showy and fanatical sacrifice, but spiritual discipline, self-renunciation, the esteeming of others better than one’s self. Such suppression of self is practical stuff, not barren sentiment, and it is wholly unexplainable.

Besides making a true disciple of Christ into someone who lives like God in love and courage, His power can make a Christian like God in another way; we can be a puzzle like He is, unknown and unknowable. If I live in utter obedience, then those around me will not be able to figure out what makes me tick.

Discipline from a loving Father

Memory says I had a closer relationship with my father than with my mother. Reasons and examples would fill too much space, but this has had an impact on how I perceive God; He is like both of them. My parents loved us and never fought with each other. They sacrificed themselves for the family and did their very best to raise us with morals, character and a good work ethic. 

If my father had a flaw, it was related to his value for hard work; he was very critical of those who were lazy. This verse cannot help but put thoughts of my father, even my mother, in my head.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:13)

Also, I read it understanding that many people do not experience good fathers, even good mothers. The word ‘compassion’ might as well be a foreign language for it is not experienced in many families. For those, the meaning of compassion might be clear and there is a deep desire to have it, but also a deep sadness knowing that it will never come from their parents.

I remember my father’s face when he had to discipline one of us (I have a sister and two brothers). He found this difficult and painful. Even if we made him angry, only determination to do the right thing kept him on track. Otherwise, I think he would not have done it. I’ve since learned that love disciplines, even if it doesn’t enjoy the process.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. (Hebrews 12:7–10)

These verses point out that love disciplines. God’s compassion may never more be felt than when He is allowing me to suffer affliction so that I might become more like Jesus. Whether the affliction is smoothing rough edges, teaching patience, or rooting out a sinful attitude, God would rather I learned it some other way. If He didn’t love me, He would not put me through the purifying process of discipline and trials.

Today’s devotional zeros in on a certain type of person that is one object of God’s compassion. In the category of those who fear Him are “the very best and brightest of his saints, the brave heroes, the well-instructed fathers, the diligent workers,” and any who sometimes “imagine that the very roots of sin have been eradicated out of their hearts.” In their estimation, they had arrived, lived without sin for weeks “except some wandering thought, but they could hardly refer to that as a fault.” 

The author says he pities people like that, and imagines God in His compassion saying to Himself, “Poor dear creatures; how little they know of themselves, and how different their estimate of perfection is from mine.” God feels compassion for those children who have become an embarrassment to the rest of His family, the self-righteous who have forgotten that such self-estimation is a sin also. 

The biggest lesson for today is that I am like my father, but am supposed to be like our Father. I can also be critical of others who do not see things the way I do, or have not yet learned the lessons I’ve learned, or those who think they know it all when and have missed God’s estimation. All of this puts me in the same place as those I criticize because I am doing the same thing. This makes me just as guilty and just as needy as they are. I also need to be more like my Father who has compassion on all His children who fear Him, even those who do not realize how much they need it or how much God is showing it to them.

To Live is Christ — called and named

Last night a speaker at a convention talked to Christian leaders about outreach. He offered a simple strategy about being the right person with the right message and going about it in the right way with some prior planning. These are not his words, but mine.

His message and my paraphrase illustrate that there are many ways to say the same thing. Anyone who has raised children knows that sometimes this must be done in order to be heard and understood, never mind obeyed.

I read the passage that I am studying in two versions this morning, the Contemporary English Version and the New American Standard Bible. Here is what they say:

Behave like obedient children. Don’t let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be. Always live as God’s holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy. (1 Peter 1:14–15, CEV)

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. (1 Peter 1:14–15, NASB)

The phrase that caught my attention is about God’s selection. One version calls it choosing, the other a calling. One implies being picked; the other implies the necessity of a response.

My Greek dictionary gives another slant to this word. It means to call, to call aloud, or utter in a loud voice. It can also mean to invite, or to name by name, or even to give a name to, or receive the name of, or receive as a name, or to be called, i.e., to bear a name or title (among men), or to salute one by name.

After reading that, I had the sense that these verses were telling me that God who is holy calls me or names me by a new designation. Instead of being a sinner (even though I still sin), He names me a holy person. Because I am holy and set apart by His invitation and His naming of me, I am to act like it. This is not just because of what He has made of me though; I am to be holy because He is holy.

This might seem like a lot of words. Others might hear God more clearly if He said this in a different way, but I hear this one. I’ve been given an identity and a name. I am a set apart person, identified by God as His child and called holy. I am to ignore anything from my old sinful nature that bids me follow it. Instead of that old way of life, I’m to live up to what God says I am.

I’ve had nearly forty years of practice trying to fit into this new role and new identity. Each day I’m reminded one way or another that I am not the person that I once was and that I need to cast off the old and put on the new. No matter how God says it, the marvel of it never becomes ho-hum. I’m overjoyed to be chosen, called, named, saluted, given a title, called holy. Belonging to Jesus is simply a rush.

Be like my Father

People have told me that I look like my mother. I’m okay with that, but I really hope someday someone will tell me that I am also a bit like my father.

My dad was a creative, open-hearted individual who worked hard and enjoyed leisure. He liked most people, but because of his strong work ethic, he had little patience with slackers. He loved to tease and be teased and was well-liked by all his friends.

I have another Father. Even before my earthly father passed away and left me an orphan, my heavenly Father adopted me as His child. He invites me to love Him, bring my problems to Him, and consider Him the source of all that I need. He even asks that I become like Him. Jesus described how to do that.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45)

As great as my own dad was, this is a higher standard. My heavenly Father actually wants me to want the very best for those who wish the worst on me. There is no room for dislike, saying bad things, or going beyond words to any type of vengeance, retaliation, or bad treatment toward anyone. Instead, I’m to want the best for all and be good to everyone, no exclusions.

I’m not sure if I have enemies. Whatever anyone does against me is not visible. However, the past couple of days I’ve come across those who hate or scorn Christianity, or Jesus Christ, or the lofty biblical principles that I believe. My response, at least in my heart, is not love. I feel animosity and even anger toward some of those people. Does that make them my enemies too?

Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame — who set their mind on earthly things. (Philippians 3:17-19)

These verses could justify thinking that I should hate those who hate Christ, but Paul talked about them with weeping! His heart reflected the heart of God who “demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. . . . For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:8, 10).

Because of sin, every person is an enemy of God, yet God sent Jesus to die for every person. His heart is open to His enemies. This open heart is what He wants for me.

In Luke 6:35-36, Jesus says it again: “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful”

I’ve been unthankful, even without mercy, yet God demonstrated His love and mercy for me by making me His child and continues to show it by His great patience. Besides the example He sets, He gives me all that I need to think and act like Him. I have no excuses.