“God Can’t Really Expect…”
Every Thought Captive, part 4
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
February 11, 2007
Does God expect too much of us? Have you ever felt that way? That if God wants us to live better lives, he should just make us better people? Why is it that we are born into a sinful, fallen world, and then asked to believe in a God who barely makes himself known, and seems to give us so many reasons not to believe? And on top of all that, we are asked to live our lives basically denying the things that make us human – expected to suppress our natural drives for sex, for power, for money, and for material comforts, to follow this Jesus character who lived a life that frankly very few of us are all that interested in. I mean, we say we are, but let’s face it, Jesus essentially was a homeless guy. He was eccentric. He didn’t follow the customs of his society, didn’t fit in. He was exactly the kind of person who would make most good Grand Blanc people squirm with discomfort. And speaking of discomfort, ever notice how Jesus often seemed to be totally lacking in tact? I mean, he’d call the religious leaders hypocrites, he’d call people out on their sin, he’d come right out and challenge people to kill him, saying that if they did he would rise again in three days. He was a pretty blunt guy, sometimes, wasn’t he?
Throughout the Old Testament God continually held up this really high standard to people. Sacrifice on these days. Go to temple on these days. Feast on these days, fast on those. Give offerings this many times per year at this rate. Treat your neighbors in these ways. In the New Testament Jesus was continually saying, “Follow me.” In other words, drop everything you are doing, realign your priorities, and put me in the center.
What demands this God makes! I mean, how intimidating! And yet, at the same time, while making all these demands, this God says things like:
Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)
3 …I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
And like:
Jeremiah 1:5 (NASB)
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…
I mean, who is God? Is he demanding and harsh with us, or is he loving and gentle and compassionate? Has he set the bar impossibly high, or incredibly low? What are God’s standards for us? We’re in a series now called Every Thought Captive and we’re focusing on lies people believe that keep them from being able to relate to God properly. We’ve looked so far at the lie that spiritual experience is all in our heads, and the lie that we are just too weak to serve God. Today we’re looking at a lie I like to call, “God can’t really expect…” It sounds like this.
God is love, so he can’t really expect me to stop doing what I enjoy in order to follow him. God is merciful, so he can’t really expect me to take my sin seriously. God is patient, so he can’t really expect me to work to clean up my act. Basically, God can’t really expect me to live a godly life, can he? I mean, he’s God, right? Isn’t he kind of like Santa Claus? I mean, he just wants to give me stuff. He looks the other way when I do things I shouldn’t do, just always loves me no matter what, and he kind of allows his love to make everything okay, right? I mean, what does God expect, I’m only a human being, after all. I’m just being natural. Seeking sex is natural. Seeking power and money are natural. Wanting toys is natural. Talking badly about people is natural. The bad things people do are natural, therefore when I do bad things I’m only being natural. God can’t expect to hold me accountable for being natural, can he? Can he? I mean, I’m not at war with God. I don’t hate God. I don’t have anything against him, I wish him the best and wouldn’t really want to have his job. Maybe God can do his thing and leave me alone – you know, I’ll leave him alone too and we can just kind of co-exist, Him being God and me being – natural.
That’s what it sounds like. Perhaps you’ve had this conversation, or parts of it, with yourself. Perhaps you believe that God doesn’t really expect you to live a godly life, that God’s standards are so ridiculously high that he can’t really expect you to live by them. After all God is a gracious God, right? God loves everybody, right? I mean, God just wants us to all get along and for none of us to do anything that hurts anybody else, right, and as long as each of us is a good person everything’s cool? Jesus says in Matthew:
Matthew 5:48 (NIV)
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This doesn’t jive with the way many of us think, does it? The standard doesn’t seem to be to be good. It isn’t be nice. It isn’t be cool. It isn’t be friendly. It isn’t be available. It isn’t be unique or individual. It isn’t be charming or hip or confident or political or sexy. It isn’t even be honest or be pure. The standard Jesus sets for us is “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Okay then. Just so we’re clear. Not only are we to be perfect, we are to be perfect in the same way God is perfect. In other words movie and sports fans, not only are we to bend it, we are to bend it like Beckham. Don’t just do it, do it the way he does it.
Wow. Perhaps by now you are feeling your share of guilt and are hoping I bring this to a close in a moment so you can go home and spend some time with your head under a blanket.
My friends, there is a sense in which you have been called to an impossible standard. You have been asked to aspire to a life you cannot live. You have been given an order you cannot keep. And in response to this, some people just decide that God must not have meant perfect when he said perfect. Maybe he meant pleasant. I mean, I can’t be perfect, but I can be pleasant. Well, I can’t always be pleasant, but most of the time. I mean, probably not really not most of the time, but usually when I’m not like super hungry or really tired. Well, I mean I guess most of the time I’m either hungry or tired, but the other times I can be pleasant – like not most of the time, but the times when I’m reasonably comfortable – not too hungry, not too tired, just right. Of course oftentimes then I’m under too much stress, or I’m too hot or too cold, or I’m frustrated with my husband or wife, or the kids, or my mom, or I have the stomach flu, or I’m worried about bills, or I have a big thing going on at work and can’t quit thinking about it. But in times when none of that stuff is going on I can usually be pleasant – I mean sometimes anyway – and that has to be good enough, right, cause, like God loves everybody, doesn’t he?
Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This is a tall order and since I’ve already said it’s impossible, why even aspire to it? Why not listen to those other voices, the ones that minimize this order, that convince us God doesn’t really mean what he says, that it’s unrealistic, even conceited and close-minded, to pursue this kind of life? That happened early in scripture and set the tone for the way many of us still think today. The Bible records that God had made man and woman and placed them in the beautiful Garden of Eden and told them they could eat from any tree they wanted, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For a time, they obeyed. Let’s pick up in Genesis 3.
Genesis 3:1-5 (NIV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Hear it? God didn’t really mean what he said. What he really meant was... Notice that what came after that was something Adam and Eve wanted to believe. They would not have been tempted by, “You will not surely die – you will bleed from your eyes and belch this nasty sulfur stuff and your arms and legs will shrivel up into little stumps, and your head will grow until you look like Charlie Brown.” That wouldn’t have been very appealing now, would it? It had to be something wonderful – something that appealed to vanity, for a desire for the good life. You will not surely die – no, instead you will become like God. I mean how much better does it get? God won’t follow through on this death thing. You’re only human Eve. God can’t really expect…
Throughout history, the human story is that God says one thing and we believe another. We minimize what God says. We dilute it. We make it less than it was, and try to get away with everything we possibly can. We whine and complain and argue. Or we become like the Pharisees. We take God’s good commands and turn them into evil instruments of oppression. We use them to judge others, blind to our own flaws and failures. We build walls out of them that separate people from God. We go to war under the Christian flag, using Christian-sounding rhetoric, saying God is on our side. We take God into politics and try to claim Jesus would be a Republican if he were here today, or a Democrat if here today. Anything, anything, anything to keep from having to face this piercing, impossible, frightening, frustrating command: be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. I mean that’s impossible isn’t it? And God must know that, so he can’t really expect… I mean, if we can be perfect, why do we need God’s grace and mercy? Doesn’t God offer us those things because we are so imperfect, because he knows we can never meet that standard?
My friends, the answer to that not only is yes, but I believe is the solution to this whole issue. Please allow me to put something together for you.
Mark 10:24-27 (NIV)
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
We cannot be saved. We cannot know God or have a relationship with him. Something supernatural has to happen in us – something that only God can make happen. Something has to spring to life inside us. A seed must be planted in us. And God can get this job done. That’s where mercy and grace come in!
We’re sitting here today talking about how it’s impossible to be perfect. Jesus has called us to do something that’s impossible, so why even try? The answer to that is that even knowing God in the first place is impossible. Having your sins forgiven is impossible. But with God all things are possible. See what this means? This means that everything God has called you to is impossible, and only happens through faith in Christ! God has called you to repent – to leave your life of sin and follow a new path. Without the Holy Spirit this is impossible to do. God has called you to no longer follow your natural instincts, but to learn to deny yourself in order to serve him. Without God’s spirit this is impossible. God has called you to see that you are in need of a Savior in the first place – someone to rescue you from the sinful life you are living, or were living. It’s impossible to see your sin unless the Holy Spirit sheds light on it. God has called you to a life of selfless love. In human terms this is impossible, since human best interest usually leads toward selfishness.
Some of us as Christians willingly embrace all of these things. We have seen and confessed our sin to God. We have thrown ourselves on his mercy. We have asked Jesus to forgive our sins and be the new CEO of our lives. We are trusting God daily to help us live this life, yet we still read “Be perfect,” and shudder. We think, “Nobody’s perfect – perfection is impossible, it’s unreachable.” What we don’t consider is that all of the Christian life is impossible, yet we depend on God to show us the way.
You might say, “I can’t do that. I can’t be perfect.” With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. God will take you there. Remember, you can’t refrain from sinning ten minutes from now either – at least not without God. But God can help you refrain. God can help you live a life that is otherwise impossible without him. How does this happen? What is the key, the secret, the door to perfection?
The door to perfection is the realization that Jesus speaks not of degrees of perfection, but of a kind of perfection. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect – in other words, be perfect in the same way your heavenly Father is perfect. In other words, have the same type of perfection.
To explain this, let’s return to our oak tree conversation from a few weeks ago. You have a small oak tree and a huge oak tree. Which is the oakiest? Of course they are both equally oaky, aren’t they? The small oak tree carries exactly the same qualities, the same kind, of oakiness that the large one carries. Leaves look identical, identical bark, hard wood. You could say the small oak tree is oaky in the same way the big tree is oaky. You can see this in babies and adults. Is a newborn baby less human than an adult? Of course not. Cells, organs, blood, physical features – all the things that make a human a human are right there. A baby is human in the same way its parents are human. You could probably think of many other examples. When Jesus commanded us to be perfect in the same way the Father is perfect, he wasn’t referring to the degree of perfection, but to a kind of perfection. Let’s look at that briefly:
Philippians 2:5 (NKJV)
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
If God’s mind is in you, then you are seeing things the way God sees them. God is perfect, and perfect means whole and complete. As Christ’s mind is in you, you become more whole, more complete. You are thinking like God thinks, and this leads to feeling like God feels, and this leads to acting like God acts. That is what we are talking about. Jesus reinforced this again and again when he said that a tree will be known by its fruit. In other words, if you see an apple hanging from a tree, you can be pretty sure what kind of tree it is. Apples trees produce apples. The apples grow from the nature of what the tree is. The trees don’t have to work hard to produce them. In the same way, Christ-followers bear fruit as well. Christian fruit is listed in Galatians:
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
As you increasingly have the mind of Christ, you will think like him. When you think like him, you will feel like him and when you feel like him you will act like him and these actions will bear the fruits we just talked about. You won’t have to work at bearing this fruit. You may have to work at thinking like him. You may have to work at acting like him. But you won’t have to work to bear the fruit. It will grow from the nature of what you are becoming as you follow Christ. Why? Because a tree is known by its fruit.
Anytime you let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, you are living in the kind of perfection Jesus talked about. Anytime you find yourself hating someone and you recognize that as a seed of sin, of evil, within yourself, and you pray and ask God to replace hatred with love, and you seek to forgive that person, you are letting this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus, living in the kind of perfection Jesus talked about. This is the kind of thing that is impossible without God’s Spirit in you. Anytime you are hurt and you want to lash out at someone but instead pray, “God give me a gentle spirit – let the same mind be in me which was in you,” you are letting this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus, living in the kind of perfection Jesus talked about. Anytime you are lonely and you think on God’s promises and meditate on his presence, anytime you are feeling weak and choose to focus on God’s strength, you are letting the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, and this is the kind of perfection Jesus talked about.
So does God expect us to follow his standards? Does God really expect us to be perfect? It is beyond doubt. Just like oakiness defines an oak tree, perfection defines God. It is the nature of what he is. If we are not pursuing this purity, this wholeness and completeness, it is not God we are pursuing but something else entirely. Will we still sin? Of course – as long as we live. You can have an oak tree with flaws in the bark, flaws on the leaves, but that is still perfectly oaky. The flaws in the tree don’t diminish how oaky it is. A baby will grow to be an imperfect human being, but there is a way that imperfect human being can pursue a kind of perfection that will not be diminished by his sins and his flaws. As we follow Christ longer, as his mind is increasingly in us, we will find ourselves sinning less and less, and acting from the mind of Christ more and more. Perfection will come to define us, increasingly, the way it defines God. In the meantime, every single time you think like Christ thinks, feel like he feels, act like he acts, you are displaying in your life a type of perfection that God has – a wholeness, a completeness that only he can bring.
What does this mean for you as you try to live this out in daily life? Or, if you are not yet a Christ-follower, what kind of life does it mean you are in for if you make that decision?
It means, guys, that when you read in scripture where it says that the man who looks on a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart, you don’t get to dismiss it and say, “Impossible – I can’t live that way.” Instead you say, “I must ask for the mind of Christ – I must pursue the perfection of God.” Would Jesus lust after a woman? Of course not. So you must commit to train your mind not to live in Christ purity.
It means, women, that when you read in scripture where it says let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building others up that it may benefit those who listen,” you don’t get to say, “Impossible – no one can do that.” You must instead seek the mind of Christ, and pursue the perfection of God. Would Jesus gossip or speak ill of others? Of course not. So you must commit to train your mind to live in Christ’s gentleness and good will.
It means, everyone, that as Christ-followers we take seriously the call to holy living, learning to exercise control over our bodies, our tongues, our minds, our eyes. It is a lie that God’s standards are too high. God will enable you to be obedient to everything he has asked you to do. But you must seek his mind and pursue his perfection. Squirrels are squirrelly. Dogs are doggy. Oak trees are oaky. It’s their nature and they just are. But human beings get to decide whether or not to be holy. When Jesus says “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” he says, “Decide to cultivate in yourself the same mind which is in me.” That’s not an event, it’s a process.
Do you need to take holiness more seriously today? Do you need to give up the lie that God doesn’t really expect you to live for him, to be obedient to him? I’m going to pray and as I do, if you hear me say something that really hits you where you are, would you just pray this along with me in your heart, and take just a tiny step forward right where you are as a sign between you and God that you want to be more faithful, more obedient, in pursuing the mind of Christ. Just do that on your own as I speak. It can be a step so small no one even sees you take it. God sees. Let’s pray.
Father, today we give up the lie that you don’t expect us to be fully obedient to you. We surrender it because we are called to take every thought captive, to bring every loose thought into the structure of life shaped by you and your Word. Would you forgive us for having not taken you seriously enough? Would you hear our prayers asking for strength and help as we seek to be more obedient to you? And would you see us as we step forward as a sign of our willingness to follow you more faithfully this week and from here on? Amen.
