Perfection: All or Nothing

Most people have run into that person. Everything you (or anyone else) could possibly bring up in conversation, they have some instructional anecdote to share about it ….like they know. We call them a ‘know it all’. We also have aversions to people who seem overly ‘caught up’
    ... In anything.
From health and fitness and nutrition to politics, comic-con fanatics, extreme sports fan or “crystal rubbing” astrologers – we see some degree of tangible benefit or lighthearted humor but often enough to take note, we notice 'those people' who take it to extremes.

I’m sure this isn’t true for everyone in all cases but because we look so negatively at know it alls, we become very careful about the persona we portray. We aim for a ‘tempered, middle of the road, appropriateness’.
We avoid extremes.
Well, I have good news and bad news; On the one hand, it’s good to realize what it is that we dislike about extremes; usually it’s the haughtiness – the smug arrogance of one looking down their noses at us lesser undesireables.
The bad side(if you want to call it that) is, as Christians, we’re called to an extreme. Perfection. We can’t settle for comfortable, middle of the road, unassuming anonymity.

Perfection for the Christian is different in every way from everything I’ve listed above: Piety is not a haughty word. The heart of piety is not in religious duty, but in unbridled worship and adoration. It’s expressed in humility, which is like seasoning to a soup; too little and the expression is undetectably bland, too much and it quickly becomes detestable.
However, the right amount will make it a wonderfully savory experience that promotes all the other ingredients – godliness, love for others, consecration and reverence. Perfection is not fanaticism.

Christians, the plain and simple truth is (if) we have the Spirit – we represent life. If we represent life, we’re to press to its desired ultimate expression – perfection in Christ. There’s only one other alternative; that we don’t have it and we (still) represent death and there’s absolutely NO way to find the richness of life that we search for. It’s all or nothing.

For us, God has ALL it takes to progress our perfection, but we can’t hold back in the comfort of average mediocrity.

Here’s The Word;

1 Kings 8:61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Philippians 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

If you have been given new life in Christ, allow the Spirit to bear witness and prove it to perfection. Striving for perfection outside of Christ is an inescapable source of frustration, which quickly leads to becoming something far worse; admirable, but not Godly.
In all humility, represent truth. We can’t go along to get along and expect to be perfected OR expect the world to see a desirable difference worth considering. It’s all or nothing.


In Him,
Cros