November 8, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5.48)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

While I have reflected on Matthew 5.48 in various venues, it is at this point that I should just let this verse stand alone. But, as a mighty one of God (as others with me whose weakness is made their strength) and a follower of Jesus of Nazareth who is both Son of God and Son of Man (that is, the Christ of God and Messiah of the World), the very presence of this verse is a challenge to be presented not to the world outside of the Church (whether old or new Jerusalem, it matters not) but to the world inside the Church (whether old or new Jerusalem.) We are, by Paul’s admission, “…the treasure of God’s Spirit in earthen vessels.” We are made of the earth and the earth of God’s doing. John tells us that in the creation of all there is it was by the Word of God, spoken in spirit and in truth, that everything that was made was made in Him, by Him, through Him and for Him. Let us be clear on this, members of the Body of Christ who comprise “the priesthood of all believers,” we are not self-made individuals who took dust of the earth and created our own lives. We are not human-made individuals whose strength comes from the meanderings of the mind and heart of the world which was broken and tainted by the infection of sin (sin-fection). We are not an artificial life form manipulated by the wiles of human creativity and given the “thinking” template of the knowledge of humankind as if it is supreme, unalterable and all-powerful. Regardless of the condition of our conception, our conception itself is a human experience only because it was first conceived by God. Such an act, even that which is profaned, exists because God saw the marvel, wonder and beauty of it to bear witness to the image of God in which “male and female” were considered, conceived and contracted to worship, serve and love God as through, by and for loving one another. In this expression of reality which God declared at the “end of the sixth day” to be good and very good, we are shown the efficacy and efficiency of perfection. In the words of Jesus the Christ recorded in Matthew 5.48, we are called to remember and pursue our point of origin: Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfection.

The question, of course, is “How can I be perfect unless I convince myself of a lie?” Ha! Such logic existed in the Garden of Eden and became the gateway through which “sin entered the world.” Up to this point, in this Paradise of Perfection called Eden, there was no sin. Oh, I have no doubt, and only because I know that God created humanity with the gift of free will, that there was room for sin. There was room for sin but in Eden there was no sin. Why did God allow Satan, the fallen Lucifer, to enter into the Garden? Why was it possible for Satan, like a serpent writhing up the trunk of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, to even speak into the perfection of all that God had done? Well, we can simply say “Because there were no boundaries to prevent it.” Being perfect did not, and does not, mean the absence of sin, evil, disdain, hatred, bitterness, bigotry, lust, insurrection, death, covetousness, infidelity, murder, etc. Being perfect meant, and should still mean, not allowing such things to gain control of life and distort it so that what was “natural” becomes “unnatural.” If you have a difficult time wrapping your thoughts around that perspective, I would only ask you to look back to the Jesus of Nazareth, born of a virgin, conceived in the image of God as Immanuel- God with us, who was baptized for the sake of all righteousness to be invoked, lived on earth in the midst of a broken world to become “our sin” so that we might become “the righteousness of God.” Though He was tempted in many, and perhaps in every way, He Himself did not sin. And even enduring the throes of dying a most horrible, disfiguring and cruel death (even death on a cross), He did not succumb to temptation. We know this. It is in the gospel transcript recorded for our instruction as a dialogue between thieves and conspirators. He did not deny the truth. He did not let Himself down. He did not call out for myriads of angels to descend from Heaven to rescue Him and all believers in a day of Tribulation. He was not raptured. He was not merely an illusion. He was flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone so that we might be heart of His heart, mind of His mind, spirit of His spirit and truth of His truth. No greater love was there, is there and will there ever be than to “lay down one’s life for the sake of another, for the sake of others.” Jesus knew that one’s perfect life was lived in the surrendering of body, mind and spirit into the safekeeping of God. It is laid up as a treasure in Heaven as it is laid up as a treasure in earthen vessels.

So, how is God perfect? God is perfect in love. God’s love is perfect. He Himself surrendered His own Son for our sake. He became obedient to His own Word, His own Truth and His own definition of existence. Nothing is beyond the power of God to affect others and effect the reconciliation of His people. Who are His people? All those who will make the perfect choice, the choice of perfection, to call the Father of Jesus the Christ Abba, Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah and Yahweh (the name which is intended to be uttered only in the midst of His people so they will know the reality and nearness of I AM that I AM.) There is no other name by which He will ultimately be known. It is the name of perfection, the utterance of authentic mercy and grace. It is the perfecting of that which the world desires to bring down, sully, pollute (hear James’ words again in reference to right worship: James 1.27) and make unnatural by calling the truth a lie, good to be evil, evil to be good and the lie to be the truth. All of that happened in the Garden so that we might know the difference between perfection and imperfection. And what did Jesus say was the benchmark for knowing such perfection? It was “love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.”

Can’t be perfect, you say? But, of course, you can. You are made in the image of God who is the author of perfection. You are infused with the Spirit of God who makes all things new. You are called into the body of faith, hope and love which is Christ and where Jesus is the Head. Just make the decision to do what the world says “can’t be done.” The world says we cannot be perfect and love our enemies nor do good to those who persecute us. It is true that in our unnatural state of existence, that which has been tainted by sin, that we cannot. As I used in reflection yesterday, “We tend to be our own worst enemies. Who better than us to hear Jesus’ call to ‘love your enemies’?” Hear again the greatest commandments ever given: “You should love the Lord your God with all you have; and following that you should love your neighbor as yourself.” Here is the challenge? To love ourselves as we ought to be loved. That “ought” is defined by how God loves us. John declared, “For God so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son into the world that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That, my friends is perfection.

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.