Compelled By Imperfection

“For to be sure, He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in Him, yet by God’s power we will live with Him to serve you.”

-2 Corinthians 13:4

People look up to him. Whether physically when he is on stage or to his character, people look up to him.  They esteem him to be the best of them, a model for daily applied conviction in God, a “practice what you preach” sort of guy. Yet inwardly burns a weakness, an imperfection, a thorn in the flesh as Paul would say.

Does this defeat the man’s credibility? That in all reality, he really is not perfect? No, because we know that no man is perfect. Then where does the man gain his credibility from? It is gained in the condition that his imperfection is not visible, yet it is captured and enslaved to live for the glory of One who is Perfect. It is how they practice their imperfection and what they use it for where pastors gain their credibility.

Too many times have I heard stories where pastors expose their imperfection before their congregation by not capturing it for the glory of the One who they preach about. As a consequence, their congregation struggles to pick up the pieces of a broken leader and a people without guidance. What was once the flaw of one man, instantly became the flaw of many who put their trust in him.

How could this have happened? It is a direct result of man striving for perfection by his own ability.

You see, when we look at weakness through the scope of our own power, that weakness shouldn’t exist. Why? Because we have worked and have labored to overcome it. Then when it resurfaces in a much greater fashion, we are left pondering upon why we are not perfect after our work. We determine it is because we have not worked hard enough. It is then that we become subjected to an endless cycle of bitter labor trying to overcome imperfection by our own power.

But when we look at weakness through the scope of God’s power, we find the grace needed to overcome our fault. This grace redefines our work and labor. It says that we are forgiven of our sins, but we must strive for perfection through this grace that we might not fall into temptation of this sin again. It says that through His power, we are now able to work harder in able to live a life pleasing to the One who forgave us of our debt. For if someone gave you money to pay a debt, would you behave in such a way that shows them that you haven’t learned your lesson? No, we wouldn’t! His grace tells us that by His power, we can now work to reconcile the world to Himself. This statement is reflected in the verse above. Only by God’s power, Paul says he is able to serve the people of Corinth.

In the same way, pastors only serve the body by living off His power. A pastor fails when they preach their own power over God’s power. When a pastor does this, his weaknesses are not overcome. His flawed and broken nature becomes exposed and the congregation suffers.

It’s as simple as this: If man lives off his own power, his imperfection is grieved; but if man lives off God’s power, his imperfection is praised. Praised in the sense that he models where to go with his imperfection, and many are benefitted because of this.

Now I don’t want you to walk away from this post believing that this only pertains to pastors and not people. This message pertains to all who bear the good news of Jesus Christ.

So to everyone, my charge to you is this: Strive for perfection. This is a biblical charge on the grounds that we should aim to be made perfect by grace. To do this requires you to acknowledge the imperfection of your own power. Accept that there is no way you can work out of your own ability for perfection. In doing so, your imperfection propels you into the effective exaltation of His mighty power and Name.

Strive for perfection out of His power.

“But He said to me:

‘My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in

weakness.’ Therefore I will boast

all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

-2 Corinthians 12:9