When I was a kid, hands down the verse that was most memorable to me was the holy kiss part. I just always thought that was a funny mental picture thinking of the adults at the church I grew up in kissing each other instead of shaking hands and side-hugging. But now, the part that I am most struck with is a three word sentence that wraps up this lengthy letter.
Aim for perfection.
Or tougher still, the KJV just says, "Be perfect." I honestly don't think this is something the church holds as a value anymore. I get the feeling that if someone was really aiming to live a sinless life, they would be made fun of. Not persecuted by the world, but heckled by our brothers and sisters. Mainly because of the curve. When we have the mindset that God is some galactic professor (that's not what this chapter means by tests), we can easily (but wrongly) conclude that He might grade on the curve. So when some smarty-pants zealot aims for perfection, it kind of ruins it for the rest of us.
I saw that a lot this Christmas season even. We like everyone to just maintain the Santa status quo with the shopping and movies and binging and all that the world associates with it so that all of us can just relax. When someone starts blowing the whistle on what Christmas is really all about we quickly and heartily agree that it's about Jesus and then go right ahead and buy a ton more stuff that almost certainly was not on His birthday wish list.
I wonder what a perfection would look like when applied to celebrating the redeeming Lamb of God that left Heaven to become a helpless human infant would look like. I wonder how many compromises the season would contain. I wonder why we continue to cling to our traditions when we must know in the back of our minds what a counterfeit they must be to pure and holy worship of Someone who came to seek and save the lost. I don't think I did that great a job aiming for perfection this Christmas season. But I really want to next year. I don't want to wait until November to start aiming for perfection though. So you better study up, because I think I just might try and blow the curve. :)
Saturday, December 26, 2009
2 Corinthians 13
Labels: Paul's letters
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1 comments:
It is a tough assignment to "Come out from the world". Man, everyone wants to shove you back in to do things like the 'world". But God's way really is better. I pray we all can and will do a better job of looking more like Jesus. It is 'doable', with HIS help, of course. I enjoyed this Christmas. One of my favs was going around, with a couple of my grands, to visit some folks and bring joy into their lives. Seeing the grands sing and play the piano to some people in a nursing home who couldn't get out was a highlight. And you know what, after 6 visits on the day before Christmas, (which was good timing, just before a beautiful White Christmas set in Christmas Eve), Evie said, "Aren't there some more really old people we can go see?" I'll treasure that memory and look for some more visits to brighten someone's day, with the grands. I am glad we chose that activity instead of taking the grands shopping. Don't think I will wait till next December though.
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