The Perfecting of Our Faith
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the October 11, 2012
Sabbath School Lesson
“Be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48. NIV
Perhaps you
have heard the story of the man who spent most of his waking hours mowing his
lawn every day. His lawn was not huge, so that was not the problem. He was kept
busy because instead of using a lawn mower, he chose another method. You see
the lawn mower could never quite get the lawn perfect, so he decided the only
way to make sure it was involved cutting each blade to the exact same length with
a pair of scissors and then measuring with a ruler to make sure he got it
right.
No doubt,
most of us would find this method of lawn care tedious at best and impossible
at worst. Common sense tells most of us to use a power mower, even though it
may not cut every blade of grass the same. But in spite of our willingness to
compromise perfection in this way when dealing with day-to-day activities, some
continue to insist on perfection when it comes to our faith. Perhaps they feel
God has given a blessing to such a viewpoint in verses such as Matthew 5:48
quoted above. While it certainly seems that Jesus is commanding perfectionism, the
translation of the underlying Greek as “perfect” does not give an adequate
picture of what Jesus is saying.
Certainly,
even without the Greek, it might be apparent that we are not God and therefore
cannot attain to His perfection. If we are willing to at least come to that
understanding then perhaps we can see that something else must be meant. The
Greek Teleios can carry the meaning
of completeness or fulfilling a purpose. In other words, Jesus may simply be
telling us to be complete, just as God is complete. But what does that mean?
Some might believe
that because of the giving of the Decalogue at Mount Sinai, God is the
penultimate Law keeper; therefore our “perfection” must be through obedience,
or keeping of that Law. However, on closer examination we find that God is not
defined by Law keeping, having broken the Law himself on several occasions. One
example would be His breaking of the command regarding bearing false witness
that would hurt your neighbor.[i]
When God commanded Samuel, the Prophet, to anoint David to be king over Israel,
Samuel protested because King Saul might kill him. God then told Samuel to lie about
what he was doing.[ii]
While we might quibble about whether or not this was a lie intended to harm
someone, Saul may have certainly felt this was indeed a lie and harmful to his
interest as well.
We also can
find several other examples of God fudging the Law books. For instance, when
the Israelites invaded Canaan, the Canaanites were to all be killed, but Rahab
was spared from execution, along with her family, contrary to the proscription.
However, not only was she spared, but she even became great, great grandmother
to King David and ultimately, ancestor to the Messiah. Some might say that her
care for the Israelite spies brought about her deliverance. But this perhaps illustrates
that God’s primary attribute in this instance is mercy, not obedience to a
legal standard.
Another
example is Ruth, the Moabitess. Moabites were not to be allowed into fellowship
with the Israelites for ten generations of descendants.[iii]
Yet, she married Boaz and became great-grandmother to King David. David who was
only three generations removed from Ruth should never have been allowed to be
king. But once again, we find that obedience to the legal standard is not what
God illustrates here. Again He shows mercy, not judgment under the Law for
failed obedience.
Yet another
example is David’s dalliance with Bathsheba. This was in disobedience to the
seventh commandment of the Decalogue.[iv]
The penalty for such activities was death for both parties.[v]
However, not only were they allowed to live, but their second child became the line
that the Messiah descended from. This may have rankled the Jews. In Matthew’s genealogy
of Jesus in Matthew, chapter one, he cannot bring himself to even mention Bathsheba’s
name, although he has no trouble mentioning Rahab and Ruth. The point here,
however, is that, once again, God sets aside the requirement of obedience in
favor of mercy.
So if
perfection is based on obedience to a legal standard, what is with all this
mercy? After all, if we are to be perfect as God is perfect, and perfection
means adherence to the Law, why doesn’t God adhere to the Law? We know, per
John’s first epistle that sin is breaking the Law.[vi]
We also know that breaking the Law condemns us to die.[vii]
But God in His mercy delivers us from that death. How can that be if His
primary attribute is obedience to the Law? Perhaps it is because that is not
His primary attribute after all.
John tells
us something different about God. Rather than the condemning Judge who uses His
own perfect obedience as a standard to bring death and destruction to the
transgressors, we discover “God is love.”[viii]
In fact John states here that if we don’t have love we don’t even know who God
is. By definition then, if we are perfect in obedience to the Law, we still may
not know God.
If we return
to our verse in Matthew, chapter five, we might see that the “perfection”
mentioned has nothing to do with obedience to the Law. Instead, it seems to be
about love. For if God is love, being perfect as He is perfect is about being
made complete in love. Of course we cannot love on the same level as God. We
have little knowledge of the rest of the universe and how His love is played
out there, let alone how it reveals itself in Heaven. But we have the opportunity
to love within our own sphere of influence.
But shouldn’t
we still be perfectly obedient? Shouldn’t we be going at those sinful blades of
grass with our scissors and rulers? There are two problems with perfectionism.
The first one is judgmentalism. We work so hard on cutting each blade of grass
that when we look over to our neighbor’s lawn and see he isn’t doing the same,
we can begin to despise our neighbor for his lack of will power to make his
lawn like ours. We may feel he is relying on easy, cheap fixes that don’t
adequately address the problem of those continually growing blades of grass. We
may even feel that his inattention to the need for perfection is a threat to
our own lawn.
If we
continue down this path, the love for our neighbor may die out and we may
become legally obedient but without the loving character of the God we profess
to serve. When this happens we may lose the very salvation we claimed to be
seeking, for if we wish to have our transgressions covered, we must be willing
to extend grace for the transgressions of others.[ix]
If we reap what we have sown in this way and we consider how unloving and unmerciful
we may have been toward others, it can be a fearful thing to stand before a God
who is using the same unloving and unmerciful standard that we have used to
judge others to judge us.
Another
problem with perfectionism is the trap that we create for ourselves when we
base a relationship to God on perfect obedience. If we believe that our sins prevent
us from being in a relationship with God, and we also believe that we are in
such a relationship, then what do we do if someone asks if we no longer sin? If
we say “Yes,” then we are may actually be saying our obedience obviates any
continuing need for salvation from sin. If we say, “No,” then we may be saying
we have no saving relationship with God, because we have based the proof of
that relationship on our obedience to the Law. This conundrum is the proverbial
“sticky wicket” of perfectionism defined as obedience.
Fortunately,
for those who accept that salvation is from faith and not from our obedient
works,[x]
we may claim the gift of life through Jesus that is mentioned in Romans
6:23. Once we claim that gift, there is
no condemnation[xi]
sentencing us to the only possible outcome of that condemnation: death. Are we
delivered because we are perfect and free from sin? No. That would mean we had
saved ourselves. We are delivered not because of what we have done, but because
of what Christ has done on the cross.
Every year,
on the Day of Atonement, each Israelite had the opportunity to be cleansed of
sin, but that cleansing had to be repeated the next year, and the next for as
long as he or she lived, because the blood of the sacrifice was inadequate to
completely atone for all sin, past present and future.[xii]
However, Christ on Calvary resolved that problem. That perfection that we
cannot attain by our obedience was gifted to us by Christ based on His
obedience, not ours. He has extended forgiveness to us, and when we claim that
forgiveness, it is His obedience and not ours that delivers us from death. Thanks
to this mercy and grace, where our sins and lawless acts have been forgiven, “sacrifice
for sin is no longer necessary.”[xiii]
Calvary was a complete atonement for all sins, that all might receive the grace
of God.
“If we claim to be without sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:8-9, NIV
