Desire Of All Nations
Well-Known Member
This is an excuse, and not even a very good one. Jesus lived in the same evil world and faced the same temptations, and He did so as a flesh and blood human being. And yet, He never sinned once. Christians sin because there are areas in their lives that they haven't completely surrendered to God, not because it's supposedly impossible to stop sinning.Jesus certainly did not mean for us to be perfect in the absolute sense because it is impossible in this system. (Romans 5:12) He implied that imperfect people can be “perfect” in a relative sense. However, using Jesus and God Almighty as a standard, we can only strive to imitate them by expanding our love to embrace even our enemies. Luke referred to this another way. See Luke 6:36 and consider some supporting scriptures in Matthew 5:43-47.
Jesus meant exactly what He said in Matt. 5:48 when He stated that His followers are supposed to strive towards moral perfection. Jesus didn't say it was going to be easy, but it has to be done. Nothing that was worth having ever came easy, and eternal life is no different.
Considering God is offering eternal life in His Kingdom, it is absolutely fair of Him to require that someone prove themselves worthy of it by striving towards moral perfection. God will not entrust eternal life to people who want to continue living contrary to His moral standards. Quite frankly, it's ridiculous that so many professing Christians actually think He is obliged to do it just because they believe Jesus exists.