I decided at the end of last year that starting on January 1st I would start going through the Gospels a few verses at a time to study the words and deeds of Jesus. It's kind of been on my to-do list for quite a while now, so on December 31st I bought a page-a-day A5 diary to make notes and have been keeping up well. If I had the time I'd write most of them up here.
There are 2 things that have become apparent. One of which is a rather interesting trend in my thoughts & writings, the other is re-visiting an old conundrum...
The trend I've noticed is how few answers I've found and the far greater number of questions. I've only just got to the end of Matthew chapter 5 so I've just been starting on the Sermon on the Mount. Some new questions have arisen in my mind and some new understanding on the beattitudes. I'm now going through the next batch of teaching including the really interesting series of "you've heard it said..." followed by "but I tell you..." That is an under preached, under taught part of the Gospels.
The old conundrum is the last verse of Matthew 5: "Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect". I was half tempted to skip over it last night. Would it be too much or not enough to handle? I mean it's just 1 verse at the end of the chapter kind of dangling after those you've heard it said/I tell you bits. It's also an idea I re-visit every so often. As I chewed it over during the day I decided that it was worth going over again.
I've long pondered the possibilty of perfection. Jesus says we should be perfect, 1 Thessalonians 5 says we may be preserved blameless, yet we all seem to accept that we cannot become perfect. I've longed held that perfection is possible but felt uncomfortable with the idea, like I may fooling myself. To make matters worse, believing that perfection isn't possible makes at least as uncomfortable.
So here's my latest conclusion - which I think has a good balance...
- Percfection is possible. There is no reason why you cannot live from this moment on without sinning. Paul wrote in Corinthinians that there is no temptation that isn't common to man and that God always gives a way out of it. To say that sin is inevitable just gives us an excuse.
- But possible is not the same as probable. For example - there is a temperature (-273 degrees C) that you cannot go below and at which all sub-atomic activity ceases. Noone has achieved that temperature yet, but we're quite sure that that is the case.
- I believe that I could live the rest of my life from this moment without sinning. I also believe that this is unlikely.
I don't think that in saying "be perfect" Jesus is setting an impossible task that will just make us give up when we keep failing. But I do believe that we should always aim for perfection. That when we fail we shouldn't mope or moan but put it behind us (as God does) and keep aiming for the best
The only alternative to this is to write our failings of with the old excuses such as "nobody's perfect" or "I'm only human". The tricky bit is getting the balance right between beating yourself up over messing up (never good or healthy) and accepting second best (or worse).
I'd like to say that if I ever achieved perfection I'd let you al know - but I guess I'd be too humble to tell you!
