{"id":3120,"date":"2022-01-07T15:06:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T15:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=3120"},"modified":"2022-01-07T20:26:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T20:26:57","slug":"perfection-and-discouragement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/2022\/01\/07\/perfection-and-discouragement\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfection and Discouragement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus says, \u201cYou therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect\u201d (Matthew 5:48).<\/p>\n<p>Perfect? Like God? In this life, I\u2019ll never be perfect. So what does that statement mean?<\/p>\n<p>In Matthew 5 Jesus builds up to that statement:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cYou are the salt of the earth\u201d (Matthew 5:13).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYou are the light of the world\u2026. let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven\u201d (Matthew 5:14,16).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cUnless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven\u201d (Matthew 5:20).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our Lord then gives several examples of ways the scribes and Pharisees fall short of the true meaning of the law by redefining it to be achievable by their own efforts. He then concludes with the statement about perfection. We are to be \u201csons of your Father who is in heaven\u201d (Matthew 5:45), taking on His family resemblance, showing what He is like. This is the purpose of both our creation (Isaiah 43:7) and our redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14).<\/p>\n<p>But how do we live this out? How do we hold to a standard of perfection, of Christlikeness, without despairing of our ability to attain it?<\/p>\n<p>The Apostle Paul helps us do this through what he writes to the believers in Thessalonica:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10).<\/p>\n<p>Paul commends them for their love \u2013 they are exhibiting the type of love that all Christians should have for one another. Yet, in instructing them to \u201cdo this more and more,\u201d he implies that their love is not yet perfect.<\/p>\n<p>We can learn how to live as imperfect people called to perfection by distinguishing among our <em>goal, <\/em>our <em>practice, <\/em>and our <em>standing. <\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Our goal: Perfection, complete Christlikeness, loving with His love.<\/li>\n<li>Our practice: Increasing in Christlikeness, loving more and more.<\/li>\n<li>Our standing: Loved in Christ Jesus, accepted in Christ Jesus, forgiven in Christ Jesus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The goal is clear: Conformity to Christ, complete sinlessness, shining with the glory of God. God promises to complete that good work in us after Jesus returns.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, we aim for that goal, and are not satisfied with anything less. We hate the sin that obscures God\u2019s image in us. But we praise God for ways that we are more closely taking on Jesus\u2019 character, and strive to grow in those ways.<\/p>\n<p>All the while, God accepts us fully because of the work of Jesus. He did not bring us into His family because of our works, and He does not keep us in His family because of our striving.<\/p>\n<p>So do not get discouraged as you see how far short of perfection you fall. And do not redefine \u201cperfection\u201d to make it achievable. Instead, confident in your standing before God because of Jesus, strive for more and more love, for more and more Christlikeness, thanking Him for whatever ways you improve, asking for forgiveness through Jesus for the ways you fall short, and holding firmly to His promise that He will complete that good work in you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus says, \u201cYou therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect\u201d (Matthew 5:48). Perfect? Like God? In this life, I\u2019ll never be perfect. So what does that statement&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[2464,295,2468,2465,930,946,954,2463,2461,2466,2469,2467,2462],"class_list":["post-3120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-1-thessalonians-4","tag-christlikeness","tag-conformity-to-christ","tag-goal","tag-light-of-the-world","tag-love","tag-love-one-another","tag-matthew-548","tag-perfection","tag-practice","tag-sinlessness","tag-standing","tag-you-must-be-perfect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3122,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3120\/revisions\/3122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}