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Spiritual
Desire: Are You Perfect?
Christians lie. Cheat. And sometimes do
far worse. Christians are not
immune to sin, yet desire to be sinless.
It's all too well known that, sometimes,
those who claim Christ as their Lord and Savior yield to the siren call of
sin and screw up. They miserably, and even publicly, fail their Christian
calling. When it happens, it's a sad thing, but not necessarily deadly.
At the same time that Christians fail,
they are called to be perfect. In fact, Jesus said, "Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). How can
this be? How can a person match the perfection of God? Can a person be a
"perfect" Christian and sin at the same time?
In the Bible, perfect relates to being,
"finished, mature, whole, complete." If you look in the American Heritage
Dictionary, perfect is defined as, "Lacking nothing essential to the
whole; complete of its nature or kind; Being without defect or blemish: a
perfect specimen; Completely suited for a particular purpose or
situation," and so on.
No person is a finished product. We are
all in process, living in various stages of maturity, wisdom, and growth.
We know that if we are to remain healthy as a whole person, continuous
growth is needed. The same is true for being a Christian. It's a journey,
not a destination. We'll be "finished" when we get to heaven.
Living in perfection is something we
don't do on our own, we don't achieve all at once, and is part of the hope
that moves us forward in our lives and in our walk with Jesus. "But we
know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is
pure," states 1 John 3:2-3.
The possibility of being perfect in every
sense is real, but it is delayed. In the meantime, we hone our lives to be
as conformed as possible to the image of Christ that He is burning into
our heart, mind, and soul. As a result, we can be perfect in our spiritual
desire.
Christians filled with the Holy Spirit
are compelled by their souls to desire perfection. They may fail in the
flesh even while in their hearts they desire and yearn for constancy in
holiness.
Even the great Apostle Paul knew and
wrote of struggle in Romans 7:15, "I do not understand what I do. For what
I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
Aaargh! Can you feel the tension? We all
know what Paul's talking about! Remember all of those annual resolutions
that we make and break within a week? We desire and strive to lose weight,
read more, watch less TV, yet so easily are defeated. Yet, we know that if
we persist, get back up every time we've been knocked down, we know in our
bones that success is attainable. It takes discipline and persistence.
So it is with the Christian walk. As
persistent as sin is in our lives, so is Christ’s faithfulness to forgive
us when we confess our failings and send His Holy Spirit to us to
strengthen and empower us. A steadfast spiritual desire that feeds a heart
after God will pull us through our failings back to His mercy. God is
loathe to give up on us. 1 John 1:9 declares, "If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness."
God knows that we live in bodies of
flesh. He knows that our flesh is weak and sin prone. He also knows that
as our hearts become more focused on His perfection, the rest of us will
follow! The sinful thoughts, deeds, and words will fall away more and
more. In their place will come up expressions of faith, gestures of love,
behaviors of selflessness, and a life others will recognize as one of
greatness.
The Christian walk is hard and the way to
heaven is narrow. But the arms of God are big and open wide to those who
are His. "As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be
put to shame' … 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved'" (Romans 10:11-13).
"What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ
our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25).
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