Monday's Meditation: That Jesus--such a kidder!

I spent some time this morning looking for the verse that says “Nobody’s perfect.” I couldn’t find it. Now wait, I know you’re expecting the Sunday-school answer (“Jesus is perfect”) but before you click away to the next blog I want you to know I wasn’t thinking about Jesus. I was thinking about you and me.

What about it? Why aren’t you perfect?

The time-tested answer usually comes from verses like Romans 3:23 (“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”) or Paul’s creative use of the Old Testament just a few verses earlier at Romans 3:10 (“There is none righteous, no not one.”)  But I’m not asking about sin, God’s glory, or even righteousness. I’m asking about perfection.

The purpose of the Monday Memo is to provide a meditation for the rest of the week. May I suggest we could meditate on perfection without resorting to Cliches, chapter one, verse 29? Consider these startling verses:

• “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 48)  That Jesus--such a kidder!
• “Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you.” Philippians 3: 15 Apparently Paul was in on the joke.
• “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1: 4) James--Jesus’ half-brother--also inherited the family sense of humor.

These verses come from the New American Standard Bible. Clearly they got the translation wrong, along with the guys who did the King James Version. The New International Version suggests the word “mature” a couple of times, but even they didn’t feel comfortable changing Jesus’ words in the Matthew five. These verses (and others) are enough to send us running to our favorite commentary, but be careful--truth is that the scripture can shed a lot of light on the commentaries.

So here’s today’s meditation. It’s enough to last at least a week:

What is Jesus’ idea of “perfection?”
Why is his standard higher than that of the Scribes and the Pharisees?
Does God have expectations of those who claim to follow Jesus?
Could God be really be serious?
And me--will I settle for cliches, or meditate on mind-blowing inspiration from the scripture?