Issue 1, 1015 Imperfection March 28, 2023
If you have spent any amount of time in church or reading the Bible, you will know that the people of Israel more often than they kept it, and Christians frequently act as ungodly as the unsaved around them.
We are all imperfect works in progress. We have been forgiven our sin (justified) by faith alone and are being made holy (sanctified) by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We generally recognize that about one another and, hopefully, don’t expect one another to be perfect.
Our imperfections allow us to grow and minister to each other.
I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ Philippians 1:6
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:12-15
With that said, I am always amazed when we expect non-believers to act like Christians. We push for prayer in public schools, where the majority of people don’t believe. Why would we expect them to petition a God they don’t believe in?
We expect people to have the same moral and business standards that fully glorified Christians would have. Why would we expect them to act as we should when we don’t do it consistently, even with the Spirit’s help?
I understand our desire for people to come to Christ and for God to be glorified. Those desires are an integral part of being born again. Yet, we cannot legislate heart transformation.
Rules and regulations don’t change hearts. At best, they can force a form of outward compliance but leave the inward nature hard. God doesn’t judge the outward appearance of people but sees the heart. He isn’t impressed by outward obedience, nor should we be.
We can’t bring people to Christ by forcing them to adopt what they see as arbitrary rules and regulations. We need to love them where they are at and let the Spirit move.
Loving someone where they are doesn’t mean we have to agree with their behaviours or lifestyle choices. It does mean that we love them DESPITE their faults.
Jesus didn’t expect us to get cleaned up before he saved us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life Romans 5:6-11
Christ loves us and is at work in us, even now, while we are in the process of being made holy.
Let us reach out to the lost in love and let God do the cleaning up. Once their hearts are changed, their behaviours will change in due course.
Be Blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
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