Perfection: getting sued for your bike and offering them your car.

"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.