Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mat 5:48). 

That’s a disturbing standard. Be perfect like God? How does that work? 

John sets a similar standard when he says,
    Whoever lives in Jesus doesn’t sin.
        If you sin, you have not seen him or known him (1 John 3:6).

Some translators and interpreters try to soften these unrealistic expectations. For example, my Bible translates John as saying:
    No one who lives in Jesus keeps on sinning.
      No one who continues to sin has seen him or known him (1 John 3:6, NIV).

They change the flavor of the passage from a simple black-and-white statement. “Whoever lives in Jesus doesn’t sin” to the more waffling expression, “No one who lives in Jesus keeps on sinning”. This creates room for slackers like me to sin a bit, as long as I don’t intend to keep on sinning. So much for being perfect like God is perfect! 

There is some justification in the Greek for lightening the load like that. But here, I propose a different solution. 

Thomas Green, one of my favorite Christian authors, quotes a poet who was asked what his poem meant. He replied, “It means exactly what it says. If it meant something different, I’d have used different words.” 

Let’s give John and Jesus credit for saying exactly what they meant, even when we don’t get it. Part of what they say is that we are sinners, incapable of achieving God’s perfection. But they also also communicate compassion and salvation for sinners.

John says, “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

I can no more reconcile sin and perfection than I can organize them in a system where everything is consistent and explainable. 

But can I receive these statements? Can I hold them in my heart, where I nurture sin and imperfection and a longing to be righteous? Yes, I can, without wavering, without cringing, without trying to explain or explain away the difficulties. 

And I come humbly, questioningly, confidently into God’s presence. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, the longer we walk with Jesus
  the more his light reveals our darkness,
  the more his purity reveals our sinfulness,
  the more his wisdom reveals our foolishness.

O father, give us grace to continue this journey. In our stumbling way, may we not abandon the goal of perfection, but bring our sins and imperfections into your light. Burn away the sin and give us each day new gifts of your righteousness until we become like Christ. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

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