Be Holy As Your Father in Heaven is Holy (1 Peter 1:15)
This is a tough command! Some even argue that the command to be holy as God is holy is unachievable. At the same time, I don’t think that Jesus would command his followers to something that they are unable to do! All of the Scriptures are consistent in teaching that God will always empower his believers to obey his commands.
So how do we reconcile this? Furthermore, how do we reconcile that Jesus commands his followers to “be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Is this really attainable? The answer is yes. Let me explain.
The first thing we have to remember in dealing with these passages is that they are saying much more about God than they are about people. As humans, we make the mistake of interpreting things to be all about us. Our immediate response is, “Surely I can’t be holy,” or Surely I can’t be perfect as God is perfect.” We must remember that the Bible isn’t all about us, it’s all about God and HIS work. This means that what the New Testament is teaching us in this passage has much more to do with what God is capable of accomplishing in people’s lives than what people are capable of accomplishing in their own lives. Jesus is teaching that God is able to do such a miraculous work in the lives of human beings that it can be considered perfect. This is what Paul means when he says that, “he who has began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).
We must remember that God is God and he doesn’t do anything half way. He completes and perfects everything he does. He leaves no work unfinished. He polishes and purifies until all impurity is gone. This means that for us to argue that this command of Jesus is unreasonable is to say that God isn’t able to accomplish this! In other words, we drain the suffering and death of Jesus of its power! God forbid! God is able. He perfects his work and humanity is and has always been his masterpiece. Once we get this piece in right, then these commands begin to make more sense.
Second to this, we have to remember how Jesus and the New Testament writers are defining “perfect” and “holy”. In sum they are talking about perfect love. Thinking about perfect performance is certainly a challenge (but not impossible!). However, when we think about a perfected will to love and obey God, it begins to come into focus a bit clearer. Obviously, we still get sick, we’re still tempted, we even stumble and fall occasionally, however, what God can perfect in us in this life is a love that is perfectly fixed on him. This is the work of the Holy Spirit: that we can fall deeply in love with God our creator and thereby learn to love others as ourselves, even our enemies.
This is God’s work, not ours.
Thank you. It is with humble heart I write this to you in agreement. Many have disagreed with me in the support of what you just wrote, thinking I was claiming myself to be more perfect than them and they deemed my words blasphemy. But I know, my Father, and His will for us is always good and He is the One who does a good work in me and thru me. Perhaps, it is as you say, they think only on their own terms of what a human being is capable of, but i know a son of God must be like his Father and did He not speak thru Paul that the responsibility of a husband was to love his wife like Yeshua and lay down his life. That the man is to perfect his bride and that the Bride of Christ is to present herself perfected? So I agree with Paul that I have not attained perfected love, but I aim at the higher calling as one of those in the anointing and present myself to my Father for perfection in the Refiner’s Fire. May we all be like Him!
Amen!