Maybe Jesus Demands A Little More Than You Think….

I recently had a Facebook acquaintance post the follow statement

“Jesus doesn't require perfection, he requires a relationship....”

People seemed to think a lot of his remark. Lots of different people claimed they “liked” it. I think I understand something of what he was getting at. That Jesus came to save sinners, and we all have sinned. Jesus did say “I didn’t come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). But his statement still is wrong. Jesus does require perfection. In Matthew 5:48 Jesus very clearly says:

"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Here, in plain language, Jesus says we have to be something more than what we are. It is not enough to know the right person; we have to be the right people. This statement occurs right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, a lesson that very clearly says God expects more than what we are doing. He demands perfection.

The word used in the original language holds a connotation of being complete, fully matured. It is about the end process rather than a single moment in time. I may not be perfect but I can be perfected. To dismiss the nature of perfection is to dismiss a very important principle of Jesus teaching, we need to become something more. Jesus may accept us “just as I am” but he never attend us to stay that way. We need to be perfect.

Only in Christ can we be made perfect. (Hebrews 12:23, 1^st Peter 5:10). I can’t be perfect without a relationship to Jesus. That doesn’t however mean that knowing Jesus is enough (Matthew 7:21-22). If we don’t do the things he commands, if we stay locked in sin unrepentant and unchanging than we can’t expect salvation. Unless we become more like him and less like we were, we can’t become perfect (James 2:22, 1^st John 4:17).

I will never say I am perfect, but I am trying to get there. As Paul said in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 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.” I have to be moving upward. Perfection isn’t about what I was but what I am trying to become. Jesus demands perfection. He made it possible for me to be just that. So to be perfect, I must become more like him!

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Ecclesiastes 12:10

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