The Possibility of Perfection

Matt. 5:48 Be perfect therefore, as your your heavenly Father is perfect. (NIV)

This appears to be an imperative from Jesus. He tells us to be perfect.

This follows on the heels of all the statements He made that elaborated on what was commonly thought. "You have heard it said...but I say..." He is telling us to be different than the norm.
How hard that is for many Christians!

That little connector word "as" could mean either "to the same degree" or "because He is."

To my mind, it doesn't make much difference. He began millenia ago by telling the Israelites that they were to be holy, because He is holy. I'm not convinced that the God who changes not (Mal. 3:6) has changed.

We seem to have a problem with that word "PERFECT." I get the impression that we are scared to death of it, because of its implications.

What do you think.

I will be continuing this topic for the next few days.

Thank you for supporting our site at http://www.practicalbibleteaching.com/

Faith or Fear

It has been my observation for years that many Christians make their message of none effect because of the life they live. While they proclaim that FAITH is their message, their lives proclaim that FEAR is their motivation. They do things based on some fear of something that "might happen."
When asked about their action, I usually get something along the lines of, "God gave us common sense," or, "Well, you have to be careful."
I have no problem with caution or common sense.
My problem is with the fear that masquerades as caution.
If we tell people that we have faith in the Lord, yet most everything we do is based on fear, how can we expect people to believe us? Just "believing in Jesus" is not the complete faith that we are to live. It must permeate our lives.
QUESTIONS: WHEN DOES CAUTION BLUR INTO FEAR? HOW DOES FAITH FIT IN WITH AN EXERCISE IN CAUTION?
Your comments will definitely help all of us to understand this phenomenom of an apparent dichotomy within the believing community.