This post originally appeared at my personal blog.
God is holy and perfect and commands us to be “perfect as He is perfect.” Perfection: it is a standard that we all know we cannot keep. Those who spend a great deal of time thinking about it are in real danger of driving themselves crazy. It is this insistence of perfection that drives the “wretched urgency” that Michael Spencer, AKA the Internet Monk, used to opine about back in the day.
But we humans have a hard time with not taking this the other direction entirely. Since we know we can’t be perfect, we have developed whole theological systems that essentially say, “why bother.” Jesus paid it all, you can do nothing; so just fall on Him and do nothing. What’s wrong with this? You are saved by grace and that not of works lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8). Right?!? So just sit back and relax and quit. Be still and know that I am God, if you will.
It is the problem of all or nothing. If all isn’t enough, then why bother. If nothing will get me there, then why not.
I saw an interesting quote from Dallas Willard posted by a friend of mine.
“In most churches we’re not only saved by grace, we’re paralyzed by it. We’re afraid to do anything that might be a “work.” The funny thing is we will preach to people for an hour that they can’t do anything to be saved, and then sing to them for a half an hour trying to get them to do something. This is confusing. People need to see that action is a receptacle for grace, not a substitute for it. Grace is God acting in our lives to do things we can’t do on our own. Grace is not opposed to effort; it’s opposed to earning.” -Dallas Willard
This is the problem of all or nothing boiled down into a couple of sentences. That same Bible that tells you that there is nothing you can do to earn salvation, still calls you to a life of service and obedience once you have been saved. Keep reading from that quote I earlier pulled from Ephesians:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:8-10
The problem is that if you don’t take all of Scripture to place a single verse in good context, you may find that nothing you say makes good sense.
We don’t handle this dilemma well. Might I suggest a solution with a little humor in it.
“If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” – G.K. Chesterton
Stop making it all or nothing. God takes care of it all, but not so that you can do nothing until eternity. Rest period doesn’t start until then. In the meantime, do all that you can, badly if you must.
We fall into the modern corporate Do it right, do it with excellence. But sometimes we just need to do the work and keep doing it, even when we are struggling with it.
Good word, my friend.
Thanks Dave. This post was a funny one for me. It sat as a draft at my blog since last summer. When I saw the Willard quote a month or so ago, the rest of the piece finally came through. The Chesterton quote might be the kicker for me though. I am learning that doing something badly can be better than never doing it at all. That includes my blogging.
I think this is a good post, worthy of much reflection…..That is, when I get my ability of reflection down to perfection.
Seriously, this is a good post and worthy of much reflection. The Chesterton quote is priceless. It kinda reminds a fellow of Churchhill’s challenge to “never give up.”
Anyway, thank you for the post.
I see in the Matthen Gospel’s reference to ‘perfect’, this:
that Jesus has extended the love commandment to the enemy and the persecutor.
His disciples, as children of God, must imitate the example of their Father, who grants His gifts of sun and rain to both the good and the bad.
Another synonym used for ‘perfect’ is found in St. Luke 6: ‘merciful’.
36 “Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.”
So a mark of Christian people is that they will treat everyone consistently with loving kindness, even as God has shown merciful kindness to all.
This teaching was truly revolutionary for its time. It still is. 🙂
For those who think ‘how can I love my enemies, even though God commands it’, here is a story.
Corrie ten Boom after the war and her release from Ravensbruck concentration camp, encountered the cruel guard who had hurt her sister Betsie, and tormented Corrie . . .
“Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. …
“You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.
“I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us.”
“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, …” his hand came out, … “will you forgive me?”
And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” …
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then. ”
We do not ‘perfect’, but we understand and recognize the gift of God’s grace and His great mercy to us. As Corrie wrote in her book ‘The Hiding Place’,
“when God asks us to forgive, He gives us the strength to do it”
L’s,
True kindness always involves telling the truth. To not tell the truth about a person’s lost condition or heretical theology or apostasy is hatful, cowardly, compassionless, and always godlessly evil.
It is for that reason that I always tell you that you need to repent and believe the biblical gospel. That “is” consistent “loving kindness, even as God has shown merciful kindness” to me, a sinner saved only by grace.
L’s, in all truth, the best friend you have ever had on Baptist blogs have been those of us who have told you the truth about the gospel. Your worst enemies, and the best of Satan’s soldiers have been and are those among us who have told you: “Christiane, you are OK.”
You are not OK L’s. You need to repent and embrace the biblical gospel. Otherwise, you are hopelessly lost.
“Be ye perfect” is indeed a challenge even when interpreted less as an expected state of being and more as a process. As process it has motivating potential, whereas as a state of being it may indeed impact as is written in the post. I rather see the statement challenging us to strive to love as God loves, to give of self without holding back (i.e., to give the totality of one’s being) as God has not held back his caring for all creaturely beings.
BH, when I think of this verse I always think for what the 16th century cleric (think it is 16th century), William Law said. I’ll quote it from memory, not verbatim.
“The problem isn’t that men try to be perfect and fail, but that they do not even intend to be perfect in the first place.”
Perfection, whether process or product, requires one urgently and desperately desire to become like Christ.
Frank,
Thanks for sharing that quote, it would have fit perfectly in the original post. I once heard that we always find a way to do the things that we truly want to do. This is demonstrated time and time again by people who overcome all kinds of disabilities to achieve things that most would say were impossible. Yet, we frequently come up with excuses for things that we could have done, if we just took the time or had the desire. May our desire to become like Christ continue to increase.
If you want to get the book, it is considered a Christian Classic. William Law, “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.”