Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.

 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

It will be a while before I can check those on my “obedience completed” list.

Here is where I am on this one.

To obey these commandments from Scripture is impossible.

I can’t get there under my own power.

After 66 years, I am not perfect like God. Unfortunately, I am still not taking care of my neighbors as I care for me.

If my church family would be more cooperative in thought and could see everything as seen through my eyes, we could unite in mind and thought.

No, I am afraid these aren’t “check off items.”  (Is there anything in Scripture that is a check off proposition?)

I wonder if God might see more of my potential than I can. After all, He designed the specs. It is a neat thought to believe that God thinks I might grow toward perfection.

Whoever wrote the letter to Hebrew Christians gives me a clue as to how I might arrive. It is by fixing my eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Heb 12:2)

The only way I see to get near God’s expectation is to move in close to Jesus.

The more I imitate Jesus, the more I give him honor, the more I love him, the more I serve him, the more I will find I am reflecting a tad more of God’s expectation.

Jesus will perfect my faith.

Then, one morning I will awake in eternity loving God with all of my heart, soul, strength, and mind. The same perfection received from the Son that started to flow in this life will drench my fellow believers in our eternal state.

And—I will fulfill God’s expectation.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – Reflecting on Cross Church

Gary@Godreflection.org