Perfection

The story is told about a perfect man who met a perfect woman. After a perfect courtship, they had a perfect wedding. Their life together was, of course, perfect.

Then one stormy, Christmas Eve this perfect couple was driving along a winding road when they noticed someone on the side of the road in distress. Being the perfect couple, they stopped to help. There stood Santa Claus with a huge bundle of toys. Not wanting to disappoint any children on the eve of Christmas, the perfect couple loaded Santa and his toys into their vehicle. Soon they were driving along delivering the toys.

Unfortunately, the driving conditions deteriorated and the perfect couple and Santa had an accident. Only one of them survived the accident. Who was the survivor?

The answer: The perfect woman. Because, after all, she’s the only one that really existed in the first place. Everyone knows there is no Santa Claus and no such thing as a perfect man.

The men’s response to the answer: If there is no such thing as a perfect man or Santa Claus, then the perfect woman must have been driving...which explains why there was a car accident.

(From a sermon by Mike Gilbert, "A Man For All Seasons" 7/19/08)

A man once came up to C. H. Spurgeon, the great English preacher, at a Christian retreat, and said that he had reached a state of spiritual perfection. Without a word Spurgeon picked up a pitcher of ice-cold water and poured it on the man's head. When the man became angry and reacted like any normal person would if cold water were poured on his head, Spurgeon said, "Well, now I know exactly what spiritual perfection you've come to!"

Matthew 5:43–48 NIV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Have you ever tried to be perfect at something? Have you ever succeeded?

“Perfection” is one of those words that weighs us down. Some of us hear it and our inner voice begins to tell us all the ways we’ve failed. Others feel the weight of legalism and the never-ending list of what we must do to be enough. Or maybe we hear the word and instantly think, What’s the point? It’s unattainable, unreachable, and laughable, so we just give up. It’s something that cannot be achieved, so we run the other direction.

These are not easy verses to read. We struggle with the idea of loving our enemies. So many have wrestled with these words commanding us to “be perfect.”

We read verse 48 and struggle—but maybe our struggle is because we read this verse alone. We have a tendency at times to do this - to look at one verse all by itself and forget that the context comes from the verses before and after it. Maybe it’s not meant to be about legalism or perfectionism or never sinning again. Maybe it’s not about all of that burden we carry at all. Maybe it’s not meant to be read on its own. Maybe it’s only supposed to be read and understood in conjunction with the verses that come before it—the verses that talk about loving our enemies. If that’s true, then maybe perfection is less about what we are doing and more about whom we are loving.

How We Should Live as the People of God

This verse on perfection is taken from the broader Sermon on the Mount. We have looked in depth at what it means to live the Beatitudes—the attitudes that the people of God are to exhibit. We are to be poor in spirit, merciful, meek, peacemakers, etc. But Jesus moves on to correct many of the ways the people have been interpreting the law incorrectly.

The law says not to murder, but Jesus tells them it isn’t enough just to avoid murder. The people of God are supposed to merciful and compassionate.

The law says not to commit adultery, but Jesus tells them that lust—treating people as objects to be acquired and consumed—is sin.

The law permits divorce as long as the divorcer presents the wife with a certificate of divorce, but Jesus tells them they can’t just go around divorcing their wives for burning their toast. That’s a silly example, but it’s the type of reality women lived at the time. Women couldn’t divorce men—only men could initiate divorce, and it left women destitute, without any resources. Jesus says that to treat women that way is unlawful.

The law says not to break an oath, but Jesus says they shouldn’t even be swearing oaths because their word should mean something. The people of God should be living in such a way that when they say they are going to do something, people know they are going to do it.

The law permits “eye for eye, and tooth for tooth” (Matt. 5:38), but Jesus says we must humanize ourselves and our oppressors. It’s important to note that this is not about allowing people to abuse us; rather, it is a radical expression of revealing oppression through looking the oppressor in the eye. It is a way to humanize both the oppressed and the oppressor.

In these verses before 5:48, Jesus has reworked and reinterpreted traditional Jewish law, showing them that they have been living to the letter of the law in a legalistic way, and therefore missing the point. It wasn’t about following the law to the letter; it is about the heart of the law: caring for the oppressed (often women); being people of integrity; living lives that embody the Beatitudes. Jesus is showing them that perfectly following the letter of the law doesn’t lead to righteousness or holiness if they are focused on keeping boundaries instead of on what kind of people they are called to be.

Love Your Enemies

When Jesus finally gets to the part about loving our enemies, he’s doing the same thing he’s been doing all along—reinterpreting the law for the people of God.

The law is interpreted as loving one’s neighbor, as in: those who are like you, those who are near you, those whom you understand, and those whom it benefits you to love. In light of that, hating one’s enemy is natural—after all, if we loved them, they wouldn’t be our enemies! These are not our neighbors. These are people who are not like you, who don’t live near you, whom you don’t understand, and whom you gain no benefits from loving. They’re just as likely to harm you as to help you, in fact.

But Jesus says it’s not enough just to love your neighbors (i.e., those whom it is easy to love); you must also love your enemies. This is about humanizing people once again.

The breadth of the Sermon on the Mount has a pattern of humanizing (illustrating the image of God in) people who are often treated as “other.” Often it is women, but we also see places where we are expected to humanize ourselves, or oppressors. In Matthew 6, we see Jesus calling people to humanize the needy.

This pattern of humanizing others extends to this passage about enemies as well. One of the first steps in creating an enemy is to dehumanize them. There are many examples of this, but maybe the easiest to see in our world is by calling people stupid, or idiots. When we dehumanize them, it becomes easier to hate them. If they aren’t entirely human, it becomes easier to allow that hate to turn into viciousness or violence, or more.

Loving enemies becomes this radical notion that enemies are people who need to be loved too.

Loving our neighbors is easy, and expected of us. It is expected that we will love people who are like us, who have the same goals, who have a similar faith system, who look like us, etc. Loving our enemies, on the other hand, is unexpected and difficult. There is not necessarily a benefit to loving our enemies. We are expected to hate people who are different than us, who have different goals, different faith systems, who look different than us, etc.

Loving enemies goes above and beyond expectations in a way that ushers in the kingdom of God. God illustrates God’s love for all of humanity by sending rain upon both the righteous and the unrighteous. All are beloved by God. Because we are to live as the children of God in the world, we are to love them too. Even the worst people we can think of—criminals, hateful people, all those people we don’t like—even they love their family members and close friends. There’s nothing remarkable about doing that. It truly reveals a life guided by the Spirit when a person loves their enemies too.

Perfect Love

Only after the treatise on loving our enemies does Jesus give the line about being perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. This placement seems intentional because the Sermon on the Mount is all about breaking the tradition of keeping the law in legalistic ways, and moving to the heart of the issue. In this context, then, perfection isn’t about getting all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed but about what the purpose of the law is.

In this context, perfection should only be viewed through the lens of love.

Theologian Mildred Wynkoop said, “When holiness and love are put together, the analogy of the two sides of a coin would be closer to the truth. Neither side can be both sides at the same time. Sides are not to be equated, but the obverse side is as essential to its existence as the face. Love is the essential inner character of holiness, and holiness does not exist apart from love. That is how close they are, and in a certain sense they can be said to be the same thing. At least Wesley consistently defined holiness, as well as perfection, as love.” In other words, you cannot be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, apart from love. They are connected, and can’t be separated.

When we learn to love well—when we forgo the obsession with trying to follow the law to the letter, and instead focus on whom we are loving (which should include our enemies)—we don’t just find love, but we also find the perfection, the holiness, that verse 48 is talking about.

This idea isn’t isolated to Matthew. First Corinthians 13, maybe the most popular scripture on love, has similar words. We can have faith that moves mountains and give everything we have to the poor, but if we don’t have love it is meaningless. This is an idea that is at the heart of the gospel. Love is at the heart of who we are supposed to be as God’s people.

This idea extends to 1 John as well, where we see that we know what love is because of Christ.

God is love, we are told in 1 John 4:8. Since the very being of God is love, then if we are part of God, then we too ought to have love as our driving force.

Perfect love drives out fear, says 1 John 4:18, which connects well with the command to love our enemies. If love drives out fear, then when we truly learn to love our enemies, we won’t even have enemies anymore.

If we focus on that word “perfection” with all the cultural baggage and context we bring to it today, we can drown in it. We can get caught up in all the ways we already fall short. But the call to perfection isn’t an isolated one. It’s a command in the midst of a call to love our enemies. Maybe that is the truly challenging thing here—to love our enemies. But love is at the heart of this message. We must learn to focus less on staying in the lines perfectly, and more on the messy work of loving others well because, when we do that, we will find we have created the picture we were always meant to make—a perfect picture of what it means to be a child of God in this world. And we have a great example to follow in God himself. While we will never reach the perfection of God, we can continue to strive to walk more and more each day in the footprints of Jesus himself, following after his example. Through the Spirit we will continue to be transformed more and more each day.

THE PERFECTION OF GOD

The man of God of the last century, A.W. Tozer, said it this way, "If God is self-existent, he must be also self-sufficient; and if he has power, he, being infinite, must have all power. If he possesses knowledge, his infinitude assures us that he possesses all knowledge.

Similarly, his immutability presupposes his faithfulness. If he is unchanging, it follows that he could not be unfaithful, since that would require him to change. Any failure within the divine character would argue imperfection and, since God is perfect, it could not occur. Thus the attributes explain each other and prove that they are but glimpses the mind enjoys of the absolutely perfect Godhead."

(From a sermon by Chris Surber, A Faithful Husband, 7/24/2010)

So in the midst of this Lenten season, may we confess and lay down our obsession with perfect actions, and pick up our call to love so that we truly may find perfection in the way our heavenly Father is perfect.

Song - At the Cross (Love Ran Red)

COMMUNION

RITUAL

The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.

The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.

All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.

In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:

PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION:

Holy God,

We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.

On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.

By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

EXPLAIN ELEMENTS

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

CONCLUDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND COMMITMENT

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.