February 18. Perfection & Imperfection
But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. (1 Corinthians 13:8b-10)
Biblical perfection isn’t necessarily determined as being good all of the time or doing everything exactly as Jesus (or Paul, or James or John, Martin Luther or even John Wesley) did.
Perfection is seen as completeness. We will find this completeness when we are finally in union with God. Our every moment should be focused on that perfection, completion with God.
Everything else will pass away, so if we spend more time thinking about the things that we do – even if they are as important as tongues or prophecy, or knowledge … good works, missions, church work, philanthropy … Bible study, etc., - than we do looking forward and orienting our entire lives toward the moment of perfection, we aren’t doing any of those things justice. At some point, none of them will matter. God actually doesn’t choose us for heaven based on those things. These things are to simply be an outgrowth of our desire to be in relationship with Him for eternity.
Christ didn’t die on the cross so that we could pray in tongues or go to seminary. Those things come as a result of our acceptance of Him as Savior of our lives.
It’s easy to place too much emphasis on the acts rather than the giver of life, to get our priorities all askew.
Paul reminds us that the things of this world are not what gets us to heaven … it is our relationship with God, our complete faith in Jesus Christ. All of these other things are secondary to that.
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