God Doesn’t Expect Perfection

I hear it all the time. “I’m not perfect.” I get tired of this excuse, not because it isn’t true, but because when it is used, it normally means, “I’m not trying to be perfect.” When we are content with our fallenness, we are the greatest risk of salvation.

God has been around for a long time, and He knows better than we know, that we are not perfect. Still, He says, “therefore, you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5.48) If perfection wasn’t something that God desired for us, He would never have called us to perfection. He also knows we are fallen, with fallen passions and a fallen will, and that we will always tend toward sin.

And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it.” – Genesis 8.21-9.7

When God established His covenant with Noah, He did so, knowing that we would sin again, and that we would never stop sinning. He promised never to again curse the ground on which we live, knowing that we would need assistance in accomplishing the challenges He had for us. What we know now, that we didn’t know then, is that He always had a plan to save us in spite of our sinfulness.

Just because God doesn’t expect us to be perfect all the time, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. To help us, He gave us the commandments of the Old Testament. We know those didn’t help, so He came and became one of us, to save us. He left us His Church to help us, all the while knowing we were sinful from our youth.

He who is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die. Men of perverse mind are an abomination to the LORD, but those of blameless ways are his delight. Be assured, an evil man will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will be delivered. Like a gold ring in a swine’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. The desire of the righteous ends only in good; the expectation of the wicked in wrath. One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. A liberal man will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it. He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it. He who trusts in his riches will wither, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. He who troubles his household will inherit wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but lawlessness takes away lives. If the righteous is requited on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner! Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. A good man obtains favor from the LORD, but a man of evil devices he condemns. A man is not established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. A good wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are treacherous. The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers men. – Proverbs 11.19-12.6

The Great Fast has been given to us by the Church to help us. It helps us not only to avoid sin, but to pay better attention. It is easy for days to become weeks, and weeks to become months, and months to become years. Next thing you know, we can’t even remember the last time we were in Church, so the Great Fast is our annual ‘system shocker’ to bring us back to reality.

The question is, will we use the “I’m not perfect” excuse, or will we put in the effort during the Great Fast to get back on track? All God wants from us, is the effort. He doesn’t expect perfection.