“Going On to Perfection”

Scripture: 1 John 3:1-10 I was going to offer a different title for this message but thought that it might be too long. It would have been something like “Going on to Perfection, (But We Still Have a Long Way to Go!)” Too Long??
Of course, the phrase “going on to perfection” is attributed to John Wesley, and is a major theme of United Methodist theology. The truth is, though, the phrase is not his original thought. In the King James Version, which is what Wesley would have been using, we read in Hebrews 6:1 “let us go on unto perfection”. NIV uses the word “maturity” instead of perfection, but the relationship between the two creates an interesting image. Personally, I think a “mature” faith is far more realistic and achievable than a “perfect” one.

But many believe that we can actually achieve perfection in this life, in one form or another. Few of the New Testament writers pick up this theme, but John seems to lean toward that in our passage for today.

Read 1 John 3:1-3

John is telling us that it is our hope in the return of Christ that purifies our lives at this time. Let’s think about this for a moment. We all know that we are the sinners that Paul was writing about in Romans 5:8-9 - “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him.” Christ came to earth to die for the sinner, not for the righteous, and by the blood of Christ, we have been justified in faith, but not made perfect. Even though we are still failures in reaching the status of perfection, Christ has made us worthy.

And why would God want to do this for us? Verse 1 tells us that the great love of the Father has been lavished on us, that we might be called his children. His love for who? For US! For you and me! Not for creation in general, not for animals or plants, but for humanity. And all we have to do is accept it! Ah – but that’s the rub, isn’t it? God’s love has to be accepted if it is to be able to do its work in us! If I were to write a check out for $10,000, and make it out in your name, and say “Here is a gift for you”, and you say “Wow! I can really use that money. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”, but never take the check and cash it, what good can it possibly do for you? If the word of God is offered and heard, but never claimed, how can you ever expect to “go on to the perfection” that scripture speaks about? If we hear about the blood of Jesus, and can recite all the verses in scripture that speak about it, but never claim the blood for ourselves, if we never allow the Cleansing Flood to wash over us, how can we ever be saved?

The truth is that we can’t! In the 3rd chapter of Zechariah, we see the high priest, Joshua, standing before the judgment seat, and Christ, in the presence of Satan, the accuser, replaces the filthy clothes that the priest is wearing, with new, fine clothes, and proclaims in verse 7 “If you walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then .. I will give you a place among these standing here.” Joshua does nothing except allow the angels clean him up. Satan wants to intervene and point out all of his shortcomings, all of the reasons that the high priest is unworthy, but is never even given the chance to speak. It is all in the hands of the Angel of the Lord – who is Jesus. We have to allow Jesus to clean us up, but if we don’t, we are stuck in the filth of our own lives, the filth of our own making.

Read 1 John 3:4-6

“Everyone who sins breaks the law” and “he appeared so that he might take away our sins.” This would seem to say that those who are in Christ Jesus no longer sin, but I think that this is a misconception. It doesn’t say that it takes away our tendency toward sin – it merely says that the sin we commit is taken away. Sinfulness is a constant problem for us, even for the most committed Christian. And we also have to consider the word “might” in our passage. Jesus’ greatest desire is to perfectly cleanse us, but it is still up to us whether or not we let him. “he appeared so that he might take away our sins.” It is our responsibility to ask that of Christ, and then to let him do it.

My wife and I have a hedge of flowering quince across the front of our lawn. It is beautiful in the spring, when it is trimmed up nicely and begins to flower. The red blossoms last about 2-3 weeks, and then the beauty ends and the work begins. Shoots begin to grow, which destroys the smooth lines of the hedge, so every month or so, I have to get the trimmers out and reshape it –everything that detracts from its appearance has to be removed. But the trimming isn’t the end – once the cutting is done, I have to comb through the entire length to remove all of the cuttings, and even then, when I take another look a few days later, I find more dead cuttings which I missed, and which are, by this time, brown and even more unattractive. And as I reach into the bushes to remove these “undesirables”, I also find the sharp thorns that are hiding inside. And as if that isn’t bad enough, the hedge continues to grow in all of those ways that I don’t want it to grow, and within a month or so, the process starts all over again. Every time I start my trimming, I think of this planting as my “sin hedge”. It reminds me of how sin works in my life.

Our sinful lives are, if nothing else, persistent! We make those intentional efforts to rid ourselves of that which isn’t of God, and we look pretty good, for a while(!), but slowly and almost imperceptibly, the sin begins to come back, and we have to turn back to the Lord for renewed forgiveness and regeneration. But sin doesn’t go into the night quietly! It fights to stay active in our lives, and there are times when the battle to break our hold on it can get pretty tiresome and even bloody! And after the battle is over, and we take a look deep inside of our spirits, we discover that there are still some vestiges of our immorality that are still making our lives pretty messy. And so, the process begins anew by our turning back to the Lord, seeking his forgiveness, and allowing him to clean us up once more.

While a life in Christ may mean that we truly do leave certain aspects of the old life behind, there are other things that are a constant struggle to overcome. In verse 6 we read “No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” This means that if we continue to have those sinful issues in our lives that we refuse to surrender to the Lord, then maybe we need to reexamine our relationship with Christ! We need to let him clean us completely! And how do we know what those things are? What makes us continue to avoid rejecting them?

Read 1 John 3:7-10

“Do not let anyone lead you astray!” I’m sure that you have heard someone say “That’s not a sin – it’s just the way the world works!” And we buy in to the lies of the Satan, the prince of deception. Jesus overturned the need for ritual – those things that are associated with the expression of faith. As much as our mothers told us otherwise, it is not a sin if we don’t wash our hands before we eat. It isn’t real smart, but it isn’t a sin. It isn’t a sin to eat pork, or to help a person who is bleeding, or to touch a dead, unclean animal, or to refuse to testify to a truth, or a myriad of other legalistic requirements. Jesus has created a new way to worship and celebrate this life in him.
But it is a sin if we fail in our moralistic life – those things that are associated with our relationships with God or other people. In Matthew 15 (:16-20), Jesus gives us a list of those things that make us unclean. Jesus reinforced these laws – he didn’t overturn them. He never reversed the 10 Commandments, even though some see them as the 10 wonderful suggestions! Do you get the point? It isn’t about what we eat, it isn’t about the style of worship that we prefer – It’s about the things we think and say and do regarding God and other people that truly matter.

The world would have us believe that there are no absolute truths anymore, and that scripture is outdated and rewritten. But that is the Satan speaking – he “has been sinning from the beginning”, and he wants us to join him. (v. 8) Satan chose that way over the way of glory, but we don’t have to follow his dead end way! Are we going on to destruction, or are we heading for glory and perfection?

As Joshua said (24:15), “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”. Choose well.