Sunday, April 23, 2017

Perfection and Excellence

UV 2261/10000 Perfection and Excellence
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 5 v 48

It is said that Maslow, the famous psychologist who wrote about the hierarchy of human needs starting with physiological needs at the base had one blank space to fill up above the need of self realization or self actualisation. But he died before he filled that up. That space which is the capstone is perfection in Christ. In whatever state we are in at the time we believe, we are perfect by grace. We are considered in God’s eyes as perfect when we affirm our faith in Jesus. We are considered perfect by attribution or potentially blessed with all the beautiful attitudes that Jesus said are the attitudes of the blessed of earth and heaven. Now it is up to us in real time to sanctify or perfect ourselves further to be like Jesus in our attributes.

When God called Abraham, who is known as the father of faith, He asked him to be perfect and to walk in His ways. Job was considered perfect and upright in his generation. The mark of perfection is that one loves good or the attributes of God as much as he hates and avoids evil- the attributes of Lucifer. One of the first hallmarks of perfection is perfection or accuracy in what one believes. Is it in accord with the written Word of God? Is there something added in it that comes from human or even church tradition? For instance, to believe in fate or luck is not in accordance with the Word but in accordance with human tradition. Incidentally, the word luck and Lucifer have the first three letters in common. The people of God or the children are God are not people of fate but of faith. We believe in the attributes of the perfect God, the one who is absolutely holy.

The second hallmark of those who are perfect by faith is faithfulness. We are to be faithful to follow the ways of God, the ways and words of Jesus, the ways the Holy Spirit gently nudges us to walk in. We know that we are imperfect people forgiven by grace but we also need to try to be perfect like the Father and the Son Jesus in all our words and ways. We should order our words or our conversations to be in conformity with the patterns indicated in the Word. We should not allow anger, envy or bitterness or negativity of any form to be manifest in our speech or our actions. St James wrote that a man who has control over his tongue is perfect. We should then strive to do good works that bring glory to God. In all our other ways, we might never be absolutely perfect but as long as we strive to keep improving degree by degree, moment by moment, day by day to be like Jesus, we are on track. When we are constantly trying to reach a place called perfection or the ideal, we will practically in real time be in a space called excellence.

Prateep V Philip

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