NOBODY'S PERFECT?

I AM NOT PERFECT.  I'm really, really, really far from anywhere near perfect.

But, we do a great disservice to the Christian walk in how we use the mantra that "Nobody's perfect."   On the one hand, knowing that "nobody's perfect" reminds us that we all need a Savior because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Remembering that "nobody's perfect" reminds us to stay humble,, to constantly examine our own lives, and to continually seek the grace of God .  After all, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1: 8-10). 

When we say "nobody's perfect" we are saying "everybody sins."  And that’s not necessarily true.  It’s true that everybody HAS sinned.  But the way we mean “nobody’s perfect” we draw every single human being in history (excluding Jesus) into the circle of spiritual imperfection and sin; and it extends the presence of personal sin across every moment of every life past, present, AND FUTURE.

When we say "nobody's perfect" we are saying that "nobody can be perfect."  We take the doctrine that everybody has sinned and add to it the doctrine that everybody's going to.

We are hold the idea that NOBODY has, does, or will live for any significant amount of time without violating God's law, grace, Word, or will.  We make sin a universal inevitability.  

We even go so far as to project sin onto people when we don’t see any. 
We say, “Everybody’s got something.  You don’t know what they do behind closed doors.”   True. We don’t know, do we; but we assume that it must be something bad.  They can’t really be good.  They can’t really be holy. 

We say that nobody can be perfect. 

But that’s not what God says.

God says that  the man named Job was blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.( Job 1: 8)

God says that Elizabeth and Zacharias were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless (Luke 1: 6).

Jesus said didn't say "nobody can be perfect."  He said Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.  (Matthew 5: 48)

Yes, we will all be perfect in Heaven; but in Matthew 5: 48, Jesus wasn’t talking about Heaven.  He was talking about the way His disciples were to  live day-by-day in this life. 

Jesus told us to BE PERFECT---- in this life.  In the midst of suffering  like Job. In the midst of uncertainty about God’s revelation, like Zacharias. 

And sometimes we will get it wrong, but that doesn’t mean that we have to sin.  Job made mistakes.  Zacharias made mistakes.  But those mistakes, those errors in human judgment were not sin.

Perfection, as Jesus commanded does not mean the absence of human error.  It doesn’t mean that you’ll never add up your change wrong, or pick the wrong investment, or take the wrong exit off the interstate, or  draw the wrong conclusion about what’s happening around you.   Perfection as commanded ----- COMMANDED!-------by Jesus means that you don’t choose any action that breaks God’s heart. 

At the point we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we are cleansed from ALL  unrighteousness and we stand before Him made new, made clean, washed, purged, reconciled, and justified.  In other words, PERFECT.
We can choose from that moment or from the next moment we receive forgiveness to live in spiritual perfection.  Not without error, but without sin.

Perfection is a much higher standard than being just a little bit better.  It is a scarily high standard.  But that’s why it’s called the upward call or the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3: 14)

We prefer the lower standard because when we believe that "nobody can be perfect" that "everybody sins" it comforts us.  It softens the pain of our spiritual faults and moral failings.  "Nobody's perfect" gives us a standing excuse for being less that the Lord saved us to be.  It allow us to set our standards for ourselves lower than Christ set His standard for us.  We don't have to pursue perfection.  We don't have to groan after it.   Instead we press toward the mark of "a little bit better than we used to be."  And we generally hit that mark.  Which is good.  It's good to be better.  But better is supposed to be the beginning, not the end.

The doctrine of "Nobody's perfect" has become a shield to protect us from judgment and guilt.  We throw it out with self-justifying zeal such that you'd think we were doing God a favor by sinning and thus proving that "we all fall short sometimes."

We have all fallen short, but we're not supposed to keep falling for the same sins.  We have all sinned, but we are not supposed to keep on sinning. 

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us ( Hebrews 12:1)

I AM NOT PERFECT.  I'm really, really, really far from anywhere near perfect.

But I'm not the standard am I?  I'm not the author of the standards, am I?  You may not know anybody who’s spiritually perfect.  But they’re not the standard are they?

The pressure of our peers’ surrender to a sense of inevitable future sin does not override the express Word of God------does it?

Lay aside the sin.  Press toward the mark.  Not in your own strength, but looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12: 2)

Jesus wrote the story, and He will personally bring the final chapter to a close; and the Author says that your role and mine in the tale is to  be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

What difference would it make in the Church’s impact in this world if we Christians no longer accepted our own sin but fought it?  What difference would it make if instead of shrugging at our sin, we wept over them?  What difference would it make if we pursued personal holiness more than we pursued public pettiness and prettiness?

What a difference it would make if we stopped listening to what we say about being perfect and started listening to what Jesus said.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

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