"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt 5:48
Perfection comes, not through separation from our surrounding community, but through immersion. From being around those that don't want you around, that are likely to use and take advantage of you because of your giving. It takes us being centered in Christ, letting his love work through us. This is uncomfortable.
Christ describes that perfection in 10 important ways like this (Matt 5:38-48):
1) Love your neighbor...
2) Love your enemy...
3) Bless them that curse you...
4) Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you...
5) When sued, give your coat and your cloak...
6) Go the extra mile...
7) Lend to those that don't return it...
8) Give them your other cheek...
9) Welcome the stranger...
10) Be centered on heavenly perfection...
I've read the "be-attitudes" ever since I was a little kid. You know the "Blessed are the..." peacemakers, righteous seekers, mourners, meek, poor, persecuted... Well, if you keep reading down the instruction he gives we often get to a very routine set of spiritual goals that most of us have given up trying to live. This list is always a good moral guide, often when convenient, and is often tied to the "golden rule" by considering our enemy as one that is not to be hated but loved.
I don't know how many times I have read this passage and missed two "Be's":
Be Perfect & Be Vulnerable.
1) The first thing i would always miss was the intent of the passage wasn't to set out a checklist but a description. I would read this passage and say "hope I can be that way some day." What I missed in understanding the passage is it wasn't a to do list at all, it was a descriptor list of spiritual perfection. Verse 48 clearly tells us to be this way, not try to, not hope to, but to be this way. This is not an act but rather a state of being, a presence of mind to respond to a challenge with love rather than rage.
2) The second thing I found towards the end of the passage where he tells us not to be as the "publicans" and only wave at the people we like, or to only hang out with the religious people we value. Often we think that to be closer to God is to be separated from the world, but Christ challenges that idea. As he describes, to be closer to God we get closer to people, especially people we don't know, are uncomfortable with, and need the gospel message. It is our tendency to close ourselves off for safety that keeps us from serving him fully.
How many of these are we really following? How would the gospel spread if we put our own priorities aside, got uncomfortable and spent time with the lost?
Got me thinking this morning.
"And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.
But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
...And the Lord said 'Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation?...
...For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, 'He hath a devil.'
'The Son of man [Christ] is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber [a drunk], a friend of publicans and sinners!
'But wisdom is justified of all her children.'" Luke 7.29-31, 33-35
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This passage has been an eye opener for me...
The religious leaders of the day accused Christ of being a "glutton, a drunk, and a friend of sinners."
They missed the reality that our relationships and fellowship with the lost, sick, and rejected are critical to our Gospel mission. They wanted him to minister and live as the religious of the day did, to associate only with other religious people, to eat and drink in ways that they had been limited to, to only visit homes and places they wanted him to go.
Instead they missed the entire point of Christ's ministry: seeing souls receive the Gospel.
Christ says that the "wisdom" in which he ministers will be "justified" by her "children" (by the results) in vs 35. He says this know what just happened in the verses preceding, vs 29, where "all the people that heard him," except the religious leaders, accepted the Gospel and were baptized. Christ's wisdom in choosing to eat and drink with the rejected, partying, lost crowd was justified by the work of the Gospel to change those lives.
Are we only ministering in safe ways? To only people like us? Only in places that our religious friends approve? Only in places that we are comfortable, places where we are not tempted?
This passage has hit me hard.
I should always be checking to see if my fear of temptation or fear of falling becomes a barrier to service. I know that Christ went to many unsavory homes and was tempted, but remained without sin. I'm not Christ, but I believe his willingness to go there is to show the capability of a spirit led life to over come temptation. I find it is often easier to fall in the places I am most comfortable rather than new or challenging places.
May I never become too spiritually refined that I would never be accused of associating with the lost. May I not do so much to avoid temptation that I avoid those that need Christ the most. May my faith in God's spirit of love, power and a sound mind be greater than fear of failure and accusations.
When people see me, may they see a student of the Great Physician ministering among the spiritual wounded and sick. May I have the boldness to enter, the humbleness to minister, and the discernment to live a balanced life.
I will not be justified in the end by what I didn't eat or drink, but by the work of the Gospel in the lives around me.
Learning to be uncomfortable for Christ.
Christ describes that perfection in 10 important ways like this (Matt 5:38-48):
