The Right Comparison

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NIV)

Spiritual growth is not me comparing myself to other people and thinking that as long as I’m one step better than them, then that makes me holy. No, spiritual growth is the acceptance that I need to live better because I’m comparing my life to the sinlessness of Jesus.

He invites us to draw close to Him so the guilt can be removed from our lives and we can then reach for the mark of His perfection.

When I become more aware of Jesus’s perfection, the more it gives me a mark to press towards. I should not be trying to live my life better than other people. That’s the wrong comparison. We should be trying to live our lives closer to the perfection of Jesus, who every day bids us to come closer in faith.

Jesus is perfect in all His ways. He is sinless and He is sovereign. There is no fault in Him, nothing ever to excuse, nothing ever to overlook. He is the metric we should use to assess our spiritual health.

The right comparison is not against the lives of others, but against the sovereign life of Jesus.

Here’s why. When I stand next to the sinlessness of Jesus, it makes me want to talk to Him about my shortcomings. He makes me want to deal with my issues. He makes me want to get the guilt up off of my life. He makes me want to chase the power of a repentant life.

This is why, incidentally, I love playing golf with guys who are better than me. It’s why I like talking to people who are smarter than me. It’s why I like hanging around with people who are more successful than me. Because it makes me want to get better and never settle for my current skill level.

And every day I walk with Jesus, He makes me want to be better. I love spending time with Jesus because His sinlessness makes me want to reach for perfection.

Can you relate?