You may have come across people with the trait of perfectionism.
These are those whose cars must be “detailed” so that every crease and crevice must be completely devoid of detritus; those whose table centerpieces have to be “just so” before serving a meal can be contemplated; those who are always picking that speck of lint from your clothes!
For some people this can become an obsession at worst and an annoyance at best to the rest of us for whom “good enough” is indeed good enough.
And yet, for Jesus followers, there is a disturbing command tucked into Jesus’ teaching at the end of what has come to be known as “The Sermon on the Mount”.
As an aside, most scholars believe that these sayings of Jesus in chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel, beginning with the beatitudes were not all delivered by Jesus in one single session, but were collected from the memory of the disciples who travelled with him over several days and then assembled into a compact list. No matter, Jesus taught them and that is what is relevant to us.
Here is the little bombshell: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” [Matthew 5:48 NIV]
Uh-oh!
Maybe a different translation lets us off the hook? ‘Fraid not - in every English translation I could find, the Lord tells his followers to be “perfect”. So linguistic gymnastics pretzelizing the original Greek provides no means of escape. Jesus said what He meant, and meant what He said! I have to accept that Jesus wants me to be “perfect” in the same way the Father is “perfect”.
Mind blown!
So, if you thought that being a Jesus follower would allow you skate by with the just the minimum amount of goodness, think again! Jesus wants us to be completely transformed so that who we used to be is totally done away with and a new radical creation takes its place. Check this out,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” [2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV]
As C.S. Lewis has pointed out, anyone who thinks it’s possible to make himself good, obviously has not tried and discovered how bad he really is! How can I be perfect when the Law of the Lord as found in the Old Testament serves to show me how impossible that is? Or as Paul points out,
“… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” [Romans 3:23 NIV].
So is Jesus asking for impossible perfectionism? Thankfully, no!
The writer to the Hebrews unravels the conundrum like this,
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” [Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV emphasis mine]
You see, the Jesus who commands us to be perfect, makes us perfect!
I am reminded of a process used on an heirloom piano in my family. Although it played perfectly well, the cabinetry had dulled over the years and detracted from its purpose as a piece of furniture. So, at considerable expense, we employed an artist called a “French polisher”. He, over the period of some months, on a daily basis, oiled and polished the surface until it absolutely gleamed! It took quite a while and a great deal of patient hard work, but in the end the results were spectacular! The piano now fulfilled its total purpose as musical instrument and furniture.
So it is with our perfection. Every day the Holy Spirit of Jesus removes the blemishes of sin, rubs us smooth, and polishes away our imperfections. Our family piano did not have to do anything except allow itself to be polished, the polisher did all the work. And in the same way, by patiently allowing the Spirit to work on and in us, we will become perfect. Just as Jesus commanded!
That’s absolutely perfect! Hallelujah!
Blessings on you and yours! Jim Black
P.S. if you’d like to read previous ruminations of mine they can be found at https://www.salvationarmyconcordca.org/chronicle/?category=Bible%20Study