It's amazing that this saying by the Lord can make many Christians SO uncomfortable.
If I even say, "I am striving to be perfect", I can guarantee that many who are believers in the Christ would look at me as if I was the black sheep of the flock. Perfect? NOBODY can be perfect! When we get to Heaven is another thing, but here in this world? Nobody is Perfect but God!
No. Nobody will ever be God or can ever be exalted in the same manner as God, for He shares His Glory with no man... BUT (and I know this will make some shift in their seats uncomfortably and perhaps even offend), Jesus did command that we be LIKE Him... in perfection.
Gulp!
Be like Christ? The most perfect and upright being to ever walk this planet, and not only that, He said to be like the Head Boss of the Trinity, The Heavenly Father!!!!
That was the original plan, did you know that?
When God made Man what did He say, "Let us make Man in our own Image AND in our own likeness", that is NOT to say we are mini-gods (blasphemy!), it is to say to be LIKE Him in every way He says is possible, and Perfection has always been that possibility!
I read scriptures such as, "Be ye holy even as I am Holy" (Lev 11:44; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7; Amo 3:3, 1 Peter 1:16) and read on by because I was taught that was not possible, even though God Himself has COMMANDED it!
Last night while having an invigorating time with my parents and husband over a hour and a half devotional (it could have taken 15 minutes, but my goodness, the Word of God is so Rich with nuggets of wisdom and mysteries waiting to be revealed, we couldn't leave it! It actually gave us physical goose bumps what we were unearthing from His Holy Words!) this nugget of Truth came to my thought, "There was a Man who was perfect on this Planet... His name is Job."...
Job was a perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil. - Job 1:1
From what some scholars have said is that the book of Job was written before Moses' time (even Abraham's), so Job lived before the Book of the Law was ever written, meaning that Job didn't live by any "law" but yet he was a Perfect man!
It dawned on me, Job didn't have Christ as an example of perfection, nor did he have the Law or even the 10 Commandments to refer too in order to be perfect, so how can this mere mortal be what Christ has commanded us to be (and we have HIS Word and commandments in the Bible to follow and go too for guidance!)?
The mystery of this is all there in Job 1:1!
He feared God.
He held God in the utmost Reverence ( Psalm 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.), and in that reverence he was Upright... He kept straight in the reverence he had for the Lord.
He eschewed evil. I loved the prime root to "eschewed"; To turn off, call back, decline, be past, pluck away, put away - down, remove, rebel, revolt, withdraw, be without.
Job was a rebel, and has a revolution against evil and anything that would contradict holiness and perfection in God!
Job 1:1 defines who Job was, but let's take a deeper look what God said to satan about Job:
Job 1:8
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
I realized, how I long for the Lord to tell even Satan these same words about ME! Now realizing what I am missing has me aching to be Holy even as He is Holy! Oh! What a ways I have to GO... but I am going to be there, because how I love Jesus! And Jesus said, "If you love me you would obey what I command.".
Being Holy as God is Holy brings about first Knowing Him (not just believing in Him, You have to get past the believing and into the knowing!), and knowing comes to Trust.
He Knows them who Trust in Him. - Nahum 1:7
I also began to see that in order to be Holy as He is, is to completely abide in Jesus. For He is the Vine and we are the branches, those who abide in Him and He in them will bring forth much fruit, for without Him we can do nothing.
Abiding in Jesus means to be so intertwined in Him that you don't even realize who is who! Like a Husband and Wife become One flesh so our abiding in the Lord as His followers, we become so intertwined in Him that we decrease so that He increases within us!
There was a time just recently that I looked at reading the Bible as more of a chore, more like I was just reading a book and that was it. Until I humbled myself and said, "Lord... i'm struggling. Help me.", and how he helped me!!!
Dustin and I was listening to one of our favorite evangelist, Jesse Duplantis and he said this, "(taking up his bible) This is just a book to many, but the Bible is not a book... This is JESUS!", BOOM! Mind Blown!!!!
Jesus IS the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, before Moses was "I AM", the Bible is JESUS who is LIFE... I mean, if this doesn't make those who claim to be followers of Jesus excited, then y'all need to get yourselves checked!
Last night was an intense revelation of being Holy as He is Holy, and being perfect as our heavenly father is perfect and being intertwined in the Vine who is Christ and when I am deep in the Word of God I am deep in Christ Himself!
C'mon my fellow Believers, STRIVE FOR PERFECTION! BE HOLY AS HE IS HOLY! BE SO LOST IN CHRIST THAT THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF YOU BUT ALL OF HIM IS FOUND IN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Last night the Lord gave me a vision. It was a picture of a diagram of the anatomy of our blood vessels. But in this body was not blood vessels but Vines, and a 'leaf ' was actually a follower of Jesus Christ, and the blood flow was the Word of God and the body that had these vines and branches (followers of Christ) was Jesus!
Oh! How we mustn't be "content" in our walk with the Lord, but that we abide in Him with vigor and zeal and strive for holiness and perfection because He commanded us and because we Love Him we must obey Him! Don't just go by what you are taught, dig into the Word of God, eat it up, drink up His wisdom... you will NEVER be the same!!!!
