What does God expect from me?
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48 NKJV
You read scriptures like that and you instantly feel the pressure from a standard that, you already know, you can’t carry.
Is this really what God expects from me?
I become a Christian and I need to be perfect right out of the gate?
NO!
We have this scripture all wrong!
When we take scripture out of context, it can really damage our view of God and it can keep us from pursuing Him.
Are you hungry to know what is on the LORD’s heart towards us?
Do you want to know what Jesus is really talking about in Matthew 5:48?
Well, to do that we need to bring in some context!
To do that we need to read more than one verse in Matthew 5.
Matthew 5 is an amazing chapter of scripture!
It begins with the beatitudes and the very last sentence is the verse stating that we are to be perfect, as God is perfect.
The entire chapter is Jesus’ sermon!
Jesus corrects our views on the Ten Commandments and other portions of Torah, while keeping this steady theme…
God looks at the heart,
Not just our works.
Jesus also instructed that God’s people are to love their enemies!
Turn the other cheek and go the extra mile for someone who probably would never go the extra mile for you.
Not withholding from those who ask and even give more to those who are only out to take from you!
Furthermore, He teaches us to let our words mean something when we say them and when we commit, we ought to follow through!
He leads us to understand that anyone can love those who are loving, but true love is loving someone even when it’s hard to love them.
Anyone can give when they expect a full repayment or an exchange of equal value.
True love is giving and expecting absolutely nothing in return!
Love is taking a loss so someone else can have a win!
In this chapter,
Jesus is not just teaching us ways to live!
What is Jesus truly teaching in this chapter?
Jesus is revealing to us the heart of God!
The very last sentence, after we read all of these principles, is…
“You shall be perfect, like your Father in Heaven is perfect.”
Jesus is telling us that by following these principles we will be perfect, like God is.
Jesus is telling us that everything He just said in this character is the heart of God!
We see this to be true, from our stand point, because we know that God gave His only Son’s life to pay a debt that we could never pay!
The entire Old Testament is full of proof that God speaks with purpose, loves those who don’t love Him and gives to those who only take!
He constantly turns the other cheek when His people slap Him!
He remains true to His commitment to His people, even if He has reason to leave!
He takes the loss so we could have a win!
This is the heart of Almighty God!
God isn’t all if these things to be a trophy.
He isn’t trying to hold a meaningless record for all to be astonished by!
No,
His perfect character is what accomplished a perfect love!
God’s reason was always to love His people!
There is a reason that God calls us to follow His footsteps!
Of course, the goal is that we become more like Him!
Not to be trophies on God’s mantel,
But to continue in the purpose that God created…
Perfect love!
These are the ways God is perfecting love in us!
This is what God’s goal is!
Don’t believe me?
Read this passage!
I John 4:7-19 NKJV
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.”
God is perfecting love in us!
Does this mean God expects us to love perfectly right off the bat?
Absolutely NOT!
Perfect love is available and God is in the process of perfecting love in our hearts!
If we didn’t have a process, we wouldn’t be in need of these scriptures.
We wouldn’t need instructions and we wouldn’t need to know God’s characteristics of perfect love!
God allows the process!
God doesn’t shame us because we are still in progress!
How do I know?
Pay attention!
If you got nothing from this post, let this be the only thing that you remember!
In Matthew 15:29-39,
This takes place after the feeding of the 5,000 miracle in Matthew 14:13-21.
Jesus is somewhere new and another multitude is following Him on His Journey.
Jesus stops to acknowledge that the multitude has faithfully followed Him for three days without food.
“Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.””
Matthew 15:32 NKJV.
Jesus has compassion on the multitude because they have now followed Him for three days and had to fast as a result of that.
Keep in mind that these people have recently been healed of many deformities, defects and illnesses, so they are pretty high on excitement.
Jesus still feels for them.
The same Jesus who fasted 40 days in the wilderness, while being tempted by the devil…
That Jesus!
If God expected them to start following Jesus and instantly be able to resist food for 40 days like Jesus did…
This miracle would have never happened.
Jesus would be like,
“I fasted 40 days before, surely three days is no big deal! They should be like me by now anyways!
Able to resist everything that I can resist and do everything the way that I do.”
Jesus, who suffered way more hunger,
felt compassion for people who hungered only three days!
He didn’t put on them, an expectation of doing everything like He did it!
Jesus celebrated that they were following Him and that they were willing to hunger in order to follow Him.
One day, they may fast 40 days for His sake, but in this moment, three days was a lot for them and Jesus felt compassion for the struggle they were in.
Jesus knew it was a big deal to them!
He performed a miracle similar to the feeding of the 5,000.
This shows that God is not doing miracles to be seen as a performance!
God performs miracles to meet needs in an abundant way.
He is willing to do it again and again!
Not because it’s the only trick He has up His sleeve, but because He is showing His people that He will meet their needs over and over again, in a way that only He can!
God is showing us that He isn’t done.
He can do it again!
He isn’t expecting us to be perfectly like Jesus after we accept Christ!
And He isn’t looking for us to get to the point where we are suffering just like Jesus and doing everything perfectly like Jesus does, before He provides for us.
Remember…
God’s goal is love!
So, He is only seeking to love us!
If we have a need, He lovingly has compassion and wants to fulfill that need.
He will abundantly fulfill our needs!
He will do it again and again!
Without expectations or conditions!
He will because,
He loves us perfectly!
Photo by Flora Westbrook
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
