You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt 5:48. AMP)
The gospel is a paradox, a contradiction, that if you try to make sense of it using the world’s standards as a measuring stick, it will never make sense. We come to the end of this section of the Sermon on the Mount, during which Jesus turned their world upside down. Today, the world has infiltrated the Church to the point that if Jesus were to return today, He just might sit us on a hillside somewhere to correct some ‘stinking thinking.’
People, family, will often ask me why I am pastoring where I am and not in some big church. Alternatively, why I am not working for some big corporation and being successful., people say that I have talent and ability, and I have the qualifications? All I know is that when I signed up for the Kingdom, I did not sign up to know everything, just to know Him and the power of the resurrection. Just before we left for the States in 1994, I received a prophetic word that said I was going to get a ‘coat of many colors.’ I fell into the same trap as Joseph, by thinking that I might be somebody only to realize that I am nobody. There had been times when, like Joseph, I’ve said to those that I’ve helped along the way, “But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.” (Gen 40:14 NKJ) The butler forgot, and Joseph remained in prison.
Discontentment will come in life when you try to measure the things of God by the world’s standards. Paul wrote, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom 12:2 NKJ) As for me, the world might think I am down, but I am up. They might think I am out, but I am in, in the House, and whether I am the doorkeeper, the cupbearer or the butler, I have to say that it is well with my soul. The world does not change us; we change the world.
