All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Mathew 7:21-28 & Luke 13:23-28
I'm a sinner. There are sins that I struggle with and there are sins that I'm not ready to give up yet; even if I tried, I'm going to slip up. Does that mean that I won't be able to enter the Kingdom of God? I'm perceiving these verses as God expecting us to be perfect; to follow all of his commands, all of the time. I can't do that. Very discouraging.
MATTHEW
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Build on the Rock
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching.
LUKE
23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Hello Kayla,
Ever since God saved me and I became a born again person, I have not thought of myself as a sinner, though I do sin and have in the past fallen into habitual sin, but I have thought of myself as a Saint. A saint who still struggles with sin, but sin is no longer my master. My master is God. I would recommend that you do the same; it helps to overcome sin for us to know who we are in Christ. We are sinners because we still sin and at times even in a habitual manner, but in our inner most we have been born again, if indeed we have.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9
Kayla what i hear from you is that you want God your way; you want to do what you want to do. Right now that is number one in your life. You, you are number one. You are not alone in your desires, the whole world wants the same thing, we all want what we want.
However, there comes a time as God continues to work in our lives that we want what He wants, we want him, not what we can get from him, but him. He is more than enough, but God is not more than enough for you now, so you are not ready to give up some things. You don't have contentment without what you want for now.
The mark God sets for us is perfection, because through the Spirit we can achieve it. I have never known anyone to do it, but it certainly is a real possibility. Perfection in Christ and our heart/motives can be our goal, but we will sin. We remain in fallen flesh and God knows that very well, but God cannot ask us to sin just a little bit, He is holy, so He calls us to holiness and has positionaly made us holy through the blood of Christ, his death and resurrection. Jesus takes our sin and we take his righteousness, imputed to us. We are not made righteous in the flesh, but we Have Jesus’ righteousness placed on our account.
The fact that God wants us to be holy as He is Holy is an amazing, beautiful thing, because He does make us Righteous through Christ and enables us to be free from sin by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We can attain an awesome relationship with Christ and walk in freedom. So it should not be discouraging at all that God calls us to be like him.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Good word, David.
Kayla, someone explained it to me in a way that was truly helpful by saying first, we must have assurance that we are saved. That is the foundation. Then we must recognize that we are growing.
Also, when we are in Christ, the Spirit bears fruit in us. We can't produce this fruit ourselves but the Spirit produces His fruit in us. The fruit has nine attributes: love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
When the fruit begins growing in you, then you are walking in the Spirit -- living out the "Christ-life" without putting forth your own effort. It's important to remember that we are maturing and are works in progress and we have faults that we must overcome. Galatians 6 talks a little bit about helping someone who is overtaken in a fault.
I would also like to add that Saint Paul, when he sent letters to the churches, he didn't begin them with the words "to the sinners which are at ..." but he said "to the saints" and even addressed his letter to saints in the Corinthian church and we know those people were struggling in their faith. We have a high calling but Philippians 1:6 is one of our hopes
1 Corinthians 1
King James Version (KJV)
1 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:
3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1
New English Translation (NET)
Salutation
1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], the faithful in Christ Jesus. 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Kayla, start with the foundation and once you have assurance of salvation and then realize you are a work in progress, you will be encouraged. There are times when I relapse and begin thinking I can't change. But the Spirit reminds me of Philippians 1:6 and then I confess (agree with God about my sin) and am reminded of 1 John 1:9 and get back up and continue on. It took me quite awhile to learn that following Jesus isn't about trying, but about trusting.
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Permalink Reply by Colby on
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Kayla,
I'd like to invite you to give the statement you posted more thought and to clarify what you think God expects from us.
"I'm perceiving these verses as God expecting us to be perfect;
to follow all of his commands, all of the time. I can't do that. Very discouraging."That God expects us to become "perfect" isn't what I take away from the passages you posted, but I'd like to know more about why you came to that conclusion. Here are some questions that may be helpful to you in framing your response.
- Are you relying on your own effort to please and serve God?
- Are you giving up?
- Are you open to allowing your heart and mind to be changed, to become more Christ-like, by the power of God in the Holy Spirit?
- Whenever you fall into sin, do you repent and return to the Lord?
I'm surprised that you didn't post Matthew 5:48 as your proof text: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." What do you think Jesus means here? Sinless perfection (as your post suggests), or something else?
- Why would God create imperfect people (beginning with our original parents Adam and Eve) and expect perfection from them? Was he deliberately setting us up for failure?
- Does our salvation depend on our own effort, or is it a free unearned gift of God?
- Why did Jesus suffer and die on the cross?
I don't mean for you necessarily to address each of these questions, but rather to ponder them as you reflect on your stated conclusion that God expects us to be "perfect" and what that entails.
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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I can see what Kayla is saying because I've read these the same way before. You feel you're trying your best to do what the Bible says (Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them) yet failing at doing them all or all the time. IE: We get envious, we get jealous, we get angry, etc. and therefore "But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand". Then "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able" is like saying no matter how much we try to do right, do what God wants, we won't be able and therefore, won't make it.
This is where I often find John Gill's commentaries to be helpful for me.
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You asked, "Why would God create imperfect people (beginning with our original parents Adam and Eve) and expect perfection from them? Was he deliberately setting us up for failure?"
Adam and Eve were both created innocent and were perfect until the Fall, as was Lucifer. No, we weren't deliberately set up for failure. I'm certain God foreknew what would happen, since the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. Adam and Eve and Lucifer were created with the ability to obey and disobey. Once the Fall took place, things really changed.
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Permalink Reply by Kayla on
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Thank you everyone for the responses back. One question: I am saved. So, why do I feel like God isn't in my life? Why do I feel so alone? Why am I so afraid?
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Jeremiah 17:9
New International Version (NIV)
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?1 John 3:20
New International Version (NIV)
20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
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Kayla, I can only speak from my own personal experience and I've learned that there are several reasons for this feeling. One reason, of course, could be that there is unconfessed and unrepented sin. I have been known to choose my way over God's way about something before :) The Spirit can be grieved and will withdraw like a wounded friend, still present but silent and hurt. There have been times though when it wasn't something I did but something that someone did to me, a sin committed against me, which left me feeling that God was distant, uncaring, unprotecting, etc ... Of course, that is one of the tactics of the enemy as well (making us believe lies) whose motive never changes (to steal, kill, and destroy) and our faith is a target. When we are hurt, we tend to withdraw and can distance ourselves from others and from God as well. We don't like the hurt and would rather feel nothing and then numbness sets in, as a way of coping with the pain. It affects all of our relationships, including the one we have with God because all of the good feelings become numb, too. Another reason is that God is testing us (see James 1:3 and 1 Peter 1:7).
Here's a good article as well that speaks about some reasons: "Why are there times in my life when finding God is so difficult?"
There's a good article by Charles F. Stanley about loneliness, too, which has helped me:
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I'm so glad you posted the one from Charles Stanley. It really addresses what I've dealt with and what I KNOW is the answer. I'm still reading it and hoping he provides some answers on how to overcome the feeling/pressing weight of it.
What we want at that moment is companionship, support, and comfort so that our emotional pain will go away. But sometimes the situation persists, and the isolation seems as if it will go on forever. At times like this, we need courage to endure.
Did you know that God can use your loneliness to achieve His purposes in your life? Sometimes He allows such situations because they are prime opportunities to develop godly character within us, train us to depend on Him, and bring us into a closer relationship with Him.
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I liked the whole article but the parts that personally affected me were:
Keep reaching out. But Paul never became inwardly focused. Until his dying breath, he looked for ways to share the gospel of hope. His last letter is filled with concern for others and advice for his dear friend Timothy. The limitations imposed by his situation did not hinder him from serving and caring for other people.
Stay in the word. As Paul closed his letter, he requested little from Timothy: just a cloak and “the books, especially the parchments” (v. 13). The cloak was obviously for his physical comfort, but the reading material was for spiritual support. The parchments were probably copies of the Old Testament—though he didn’t have long to live, Paul wanted the Scriptures. They had guided his heart and mind for so many years, and he longed for their comfort and encouragement in the cold and lonely dungeon.
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All I can see is that it helps at times. But it doesn't make it go away. I wish there was someway to banish the feeling entirely.
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