Are You Perfect?

Perfection

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman


Matt 5:48
48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Phil 3:13-15
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; NASU

I am going to scare you this morning, or at least frighten you if you are one of those striving to be perfect without Jesus. Some of the things Joseph Addison says speak deeply to us and are not things that are easily understood on the surface, and unfortunately that is where we live most of the time. What Joseph is speaking of and what has been proven by those that live in Christ's perfection, is that strife ceases, and there is a peaceful flock.

So, I am speaking to the perfect today. I am speaking to those that have accepted the righteousness of Christ, and have rejected any righteousness of their own. If you have done that, then I am speaking of you. Perfect people don’t carry legers of things that have been done against them, they leave them behind. Perfect people are so engaged in living for Christ that all other things become small against the importance of reaching forward to what lies in front of them.

Perfect people feel a great urge to know the Father. What is this called? It is called having the attitude of Christ. You see it’s His perfection that you are dwelling in, you are covered with His blood, and you are consumed with His purposes. You live with purpose because you live in Christ, you are perfect because “He is perfect,” and that is enough.

Well, is it enough? Henry Beecher, an old American Preacher, said this about some of us, “I don't like these cold, precise, perfect people who, in order not to speak wrong, never speak at all, and in order not to do wrong, never do anything.” That is the result of trying live in human perfection, isn’t it? People are quiet, they don’t participate in anything that may cause light to fall on their blemishes, yet, they spend most of their time reminding others of theirs. So let’s you and I be perfect, and we should be every day, for that way we are looking at Christ when we are looking at each other, and not ourselves…God Bless.

Pastor William