(anointing service for September)
In our church the month of September is dedicated to holiness. And before we go any further I would like us to remember what our Lord said about holiness.
In the Gospel from Matthew 5:48 Jesus urges each of us: Therefore be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. Often this Scripture confuses people: how can God ask us to be perfect, if none among people can be such?
Moreover, here Jesus does not mean perfection of human abilities, He commands us to be perfect like the Lord is. However, no one is able to be as irreproachable as God.
The Epistle to Philippians 3:12-16 will help us understand these words of Jesus Christ: Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I am pressing on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be of this mind. And if in anything you are otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you. Yet, as to what we have already attained, let us walk in the same rule, let us mind the same thing. This fantastic passage from the Bible fully reveals the essence of Jesus’ words to us. Apostle Paul confirms the fact that no man in flesh is able to be perfect. In verse 12 Apostle admits that he himself is far from being perfect, however, he strives for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Once again it confirms that no man can achieve perfection by themselves. Still in verse 15, he says the following: as many as are perfect, be of this mind. In this Scripture we can see the explanation of the essence of perfection the way Apostle Paul saw it. It turns out that a man becomes perfect not because they have achieved irreproachability, but because they strive for perfection. In other words, perfection is not having achieved everything and having nothing else to strive for, but the striving for your goal itself. To be perfect means to press toward the prize of the high calling. This is perfection and holiness.
Another side of perfection of a just person is that if they fall, they stand up and persistently move forward. Proverbs 24:16: for a just one falls seven times, and rises up again; but the wicked shall fall into evil. As long as you continue moving forward, you are just in God’s eyes. That is why in the Epistle to Philippians 3:16 it is written: Yet, as to what we have already attained, let us walk in the same rule, let us mind the same thing. You live in perfection and holiness, if you live according to those principles, which have been revealed to you and have become clear to you in the Bible. For example, if you know that the Bible says you should not steal, tell lies, it means you must try to follow these rules no matter what.
In order to understand the essence of perfection better, let us look at the scientific foundation of this notion. It will help us see what God expects from us.
Perfection is a permissible range of variables. It means that every person has their own permissible range, i.e. the level of their achievements.
For instance, I have one child, who attends a kindergarten, and another, who is a teenager. My demands and borders of permissiveness to the youngster will differ from my demands towards a 16-year-old. And in one and the same situation I could punish my older son Perez, and let the younger daughter Perl go unpunished, because they have different levels of permissible variables of behavior.
In our walking with God we get to know Him and move with Him. Thus perfection for each person is defined by that range of permissible variables, in which they are at the moment of time. If you have come to know certain truths, you must live according to them and not break them. This is the range of holiness.
lines in the picture are the boarders of a permissible range of a person, and he should not overstep them.People may have a wider or a narrower range. Our movement cannot be a straight line, but a zigzag. If you hold yourself within these limits (i.e. in the established rules), then you are at your level of perfection. No man can attain perfection, because in such case his diagram will be a straight line, and in cardiology a straight line is the line of death.
In the Epistle to Philippians 3:16 it is written that we must live in the range of the things we have attained. That is why Apostle Paul says that he has not attained yet, but he is striving. As long as you strive, you are just and holy before God. We can see numerous examples of that in the Bible. This is how God can call people holy even though their deeds show the opposite. Abraham told lies concerning his wife, Noah was drunk, and Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, however, God calls them holy. But Apostle Paul defines perfection not only as a movement within certain limits, but as readiness to press toward the prize of the high calling. Therefore, as long as you press you are perfect.
Even Apostle Paul had to go through the struggle for holiness. We can find the example of it in the second Epistle to Corinthians 12:7: and by the surpassing revelations, lest I be made haughty, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be made haughty. God Himself is helping Paul here not to sin, not to be made haughty. He gave the Apostle “a thorn in the flesh”, so that he would not overstep his range. We sin in two cases: when we overstep our own range, and when we stop pressing toward holiness and perfection.
Second Epistle to Corinthians 4:7 helps us understand that God deliberately made such conditions for men, so that they could not become perfect while still on this earth. It is for us not to be made haughty, but to always rely on God alone, for only He is our holiness: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
Let us see how holiness can be expressed in our life and deeds (levels and aspects of holiness):
1. Pure in heart
The Gospel from Matthew 5:8: Blessed are the pure in heart! For they shall see God. By “being pure in heart” God means our motivation and intentions.
2. Fear of God
Holiness is expressed through the fear of God. It is when you fear to break God’s rules and honor God in everything.
3. Conscience
You express holiness when you live according to your conscience.
4. Diligence
Holiness is expressed through diligence. It is when we do everything as if for the Lord, i.e. we do our best.
5. Transparency
You show holiness, when all your works are transparent, in other words, you have no secrets.
6. Forgiveness
A holy man forgives; he cannot hold back an offence.
7. Faithfulness
Faithful in both small and big, and also loyal towards other people.
8. Love
Holiness is expressed through pure love towards God and people.
9. Desire to see God
Holiness is expressed through desire to see God, love and yearning for heaven.
10. Relationship
Holiness is expressed through relationship with people and surrounding world, through our works and deeds.
These points are values of holiness. If we manifest these values every day, then we will truly be holy. So, perfection is seeking to be the way God wants to see us, it is seeking to please Him and live in His will.
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