R I G H T E O U S N E S S V S . PE R F E C T I ON ARE YOU A PERFECT CHRISTIAN?
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s a Christian I want to distance myself from sin and grow closer to God. Though I pursue God, I realize how unlike Him I am. My spirit instinctly wants to fill itself with lust, sin, jealousy – seek wrath on those who mistreat me, desire materialistic pleasures of temporary happiness hoping to sustain myself and the perceptions I want to paint, and I realize how unlike God I am. I look nothing like Him. I desire for my spirit to be filled with goodness, kindness, love, purity and not sins or lust of the flesh, heart or mind. And everyday though my physical appearance looks like me, beneath the surface there is a grotesque war within me. So I ask myself has God called me to be righteous or to be perfect? Because nowhere in the Bible does God command Noah or Moses or even Adam and Eve to be perfect. Somewhere along the lines in Christian culture the expectation to paint yourself as perfect became the norm and lost was the realization that we weren't called to be perfected followers of Christ – we were commanded to pursue the righteousness of Christ. As a follower of Jesus Christ a feeling of shame can infiltrate itself inside of you as you realize you don't measure up to the perfection of Christ – but Jesus Himself never spoke a message calling for perfection, He spoke about righteousness. Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” To expect myself or another person to be perfect is unrealistic – but to have the standard of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, I believe this should be the Christian standard.
The definition of hunger: a craving or urgent need for food or a specific nutrient The definition of thirst: to crave liquids vehemently and urgently To hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God is to vehemently and urgently seek Him throughout our day. Thirst and hunger is not quenched at one meal or a snack. It is a throughout the day – daily pursuit. In the midst of my internal war of pursuing God or pursuing what opposes God it is the pursuit of righteousness that will keep me coming back to Him and not sin. The Apostle Paul, writer of half of the chapters of the New Testament in the Bible and main advocate for spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Roman Empire wrote in Romans: Romans 7:2125 “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” The man responsible for spreading the Gospel out
of Jerusalem and across the entire world is detailing his own battle of righteousness and sin. Though there is goodness in us, no one outside of Jesus can deny the spiritual battle of good and evil that is at work within us. However, it's not a valid excuse to hide behind being imperfect as a reason to sin. Though grace saves, it is the daily pursuit of righteousness that will overcome evil with good. Luke 5:32 “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”