Only Jesus is Faultless

 Who is absolutely faultless? Only Jesus.

We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. Jas 3:2 NIV

Who has never spoken a wrong word? Only Jesus.
Who wrote this truth in the Bible? James, the half-brother of Jesus, a son of Mary and Joseph. He knew that he was a flawed human being. He was not a believer before Jesus' resurrection.

Sometime after the resurrection of his half-brother, he turned back and became a disciple. He then became the church leader of the new church in Jerusalem.

God gave him the privilege of writing a book in the New Testament, not because of his natural kinship with Jesus, but because God called and chose him to do so.

James became a man of outstanding character. When such a man says that we all often make mistakes, that Peter, John and he himself also often made mistakes, then we never have to pretend to always be right as a father, mother, pastor or manager.

As a parent, church leader or manager, we never have to expect flawless perfection.
If I am flawed, then my children are flawed.
If I am flawed as a preacher, then my listeners are also flawed.

Should I accept my mistakes lightly? Should I ignore or gloss over my sins? No.
But fanatical perfectionism is also a trap.

I know a young Christian woman who is wonderfully gifted. She wrote an excellent textbook on spiritual gifts, but she didn't want to publish the book because it wasn't completely flawless in her eyes.

If we think like that, we will only read the Bible, and maybe not even the Bible, because there is no perfect translation.

I know a manager who always criticised his employees very harshly. Once he held a staff meeting and criticised himself for not finishing the meeting on time. He was two minutes late.

There are young teachers who cannot exercise authority because they only think about their own mistakes.

There are managers and preachers who always look down on their subordinates or listeners and always act as if they are always right. That is cruel and ridiculous.

There are churches where everything is tolerated. Where sin is not taken seriously, can you find God's blessing?  

But there are also churches where perfectionism has led to cruel legalism.

Holiness is essential, but if you are not allowed to make mistakes, the love of God is blocked and suffocated.

You are Allowed to Make Mistakes

You are allowed to make mistakes.

When I was a young newly converted Christian, I joined a church where complete surrender was required.

I had dabbled with humanistic religion for a few years. Was that my search for truth or my flight from truth? A good question.

In the Bible, truth, holiness and obedience are strongly emphasised, no question, but you also find in the Bible the God of grace and kindness.

In this church, the presence of the Holy Spirit could be felt and I felt the love of God in a wonderful way. Where people genuinely seek God's presence, God allows his presence to be tangibly experienced.

In the New Testament I see both, the holiness of God and the grace of God. We need both, because there are not two Gods, but only one God. The God of holiness is also the loving God of grace who cares for weak Christians with gentleness.

In this church, preachers demanded extreme obedience. They threatened and intimidated the members. This is not from God.

I was under the impression that the preachers and leaders were holy and faultless, and I was not allowed to make any mistakes either.

Striving for total obedience became torture. I simply could not stand the stress. I was excommunicated, but God did not agree with the preachers' judgement.
I am still alive God blesses me more than ever.

What have I learnt from all this?

• Obedience is important, but God understands my weaknesses and loves me indispensably.

• I am allowed to make mistakes.

• It is dangerous to think of preachers and church leaders as super saints.

• All Christians make mistakes and all pastors and preachers make mistakes.

• When I am misunderstood or condemned by preachers, I have a God who understands me completely and does not condemn me.

• There are many preachers who claim to have a message from God. Sometimes it is true and sometimes it is not.

• I can learn to hear God's voice, but it is a learning process. I am also allowed to make mistakes.

• God loves me in spite of everything.

• He has a good plan for my life, even if other Christians often don't understand that plan. Pastors can also misunderstand God's plans for me.

I have since found good churches and good pastors. God knows how to guide and comfort his children.

"Comfort, comfort my people!" says your God.
“Comfort, yes, comfort my people,” says your God.

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that her sad days are gone. Her sins are pardoned, and I have punished her in full for all her sins.” Isaiah 40:1–2 The Living Bible

Danger of Legalism

 There are Christians who sincerely strive to remove all sin from their lives.

There are other Christians who are not overly concerned about sin.

• There are Christians who consider sex before marriage normal.

• There are Christians who are hooked on pornography.

• There are Christians who are lazy in their jobs and often tell lies.

Who is right? Surely the zealous saints must be on the right track,

But it's not only the careless sinners who cause problems for God. Some who strive to live without any sin are true saints, such as the apostle Paul or John Wesley.

But there is also a great danger in perfectionism. 

Those who think they can live completely without sin do not understand God and do not understand themselves.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8–9 ESV

Those who truly love Jesus are on the path of holiness and love, but we have not reached our final destination. We are all on a journey.

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, Philippians 3:12–13 NLT

Paul sometimes had to correct careless sinners in the church, but he did not look down on anyone. He knew that he himself was on a journey.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 ESV

• Jesus is the way. We are on a journey.

• Jesus is the truth. We are all on a learning curve

• Jesus is the life. Only his life is flawless.

Perfectionism often leads to legalism. Heavenly perfection is impossible here on earth. 

If we do not understand this, we can focus on our outward behaviour, where we can at least appear to be perfect, but God is not so easily fooled. He looks at our secret thoughts.

Jesus had no stomach for such a religious attitude.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 

You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Matthew 23:25–26 ESV

I know a church where the leaders controlled people with strict rules.

A young man was not allowed to sit with his girlfriend until they were married.

A young man was converted in this church, but six months after that he was expelled from membership because he was still smoking cigarettes.

In terms of discipline in the church, Paul is our role model.

A man in Corinth had to be expelled from the church because he was in a sexual relationship with his stepmother and refused to stop.

On the other hand, there were some men in the church who were seeing prostitutes. Paul criticised them sharply, but they were not to be cast out. Hopefully they would repent.

We are all on the way. The main thing is to allow Jesus to purify us inwardly and lead us in His way.

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Revelation 3:20 NLT