Human Imperfection, Teboho Kibe [read a book .txt] 📗

5:8) Never having sinned and lost his perfection as did Adam, Jesus Christ is empowered by his Father to transmit this perfect inheritance of life to all who come to him in faith and obedience. He said: “For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted also to the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to do judging, because Son of man he is.”—John 5:26, 27.

Jesus Christ, endowed with this authority and power, can regenerate all who exercise true faith in this arrangement. Millions who will live on earth under his Kingdom rule will receive regeneration, including those then resurrected from the memorial tombs. That is why he taught his followers to pray to the Father: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10, Douay Version) Thus death inherited from Adam the sinner will be wiped out.—Rev. 21:4.

You see, my friend, I’d like you to read this book as a novel. I don’t enjoy sending you to many scriptural references that may disturb the flow of you nicely and cosily reading this book. But I have noticed that I am actually bound by scripture to dish out something that is full, turgid, edifying, complete and quite satisfactory. Why do I say so, well consider what is stated in Psalms 119:96 according to The Jerusalem Bible. It reads, “I have noticed limitations to all perfection, but your commandment has no limits at all.” So, the meaning here is that whatever may be perfect from a human standpoint still has its limitations. The commandment of Jehovah, however, does not have such limits but provides sound guidance for all aspects of life. So it is only in this vein that the mystery of human imperfection can be ‘perfectly’ unravelled, just as I’ve been doing, i.e. in the light of God’s word, the Bible. So please be patient and bear with me whenever scriptures or verses pop up every now and then.

Hey friend, I’ve also come to see the book, The Scale of Perfection by Walter Hilton. Some say that it may be rendered The Ladder of Perfection. Honestly speaking I just enjoyed when he spoke about the various types of contemplation but when he began talking about trinity it’s where I lost sense. But some aspects of the early portion of his book, I admired here and there. The one book I didn’t want to delve deep in is the one called A Presentation Of Perfection by Mark Eckart. I just browsed it but was disturbed by some specific denominational references and so forth. But, as I said earlier, my approach in writing this book is quite unique and does not copy anyone’s unless if you feel it simply sounds familiar to what you’ve been exposed to by the many ubiquitous and itinerant preachers in harmony with Matthew24:14. If that may be the case, then I guess I will have little to dispute with you as I am also heavily engaged in the apocalyptic prophecy of Matthew 24:14!

But friend, this book serves, not to cast a noose on you but for you to be aware of the universal issue that affects us from birth on and hence requires our immediate attention or response. Life is here to be enjoyed but we cannot do so perfectly now as we are all like swimmers in an opposite direction to a river’s flow. Only Jehovah God will make us fully compatible with the ‘river’s’ flow soon, but for now we still need to discover our relation to him and all its constituencies.

There are some further serious and deep points I’d like us to consider so as to embolden our ego in the issue of human imperfection. I’d like to think about this question: Is the produce or display of the aspects of the fruitage of the spirit in our lives mainly a sole requirement for pleasing God? Or does God look further beyond the ‘mere’ gift, manifestations or displays produced, hence bringing us to the matter of conscience or the motive behind or genuineness of gift? Now let try to unravel what Paul meant by “a perfectly clear conscience” at Acts 23:1 and Hebrews 9:9 so as to understand the broader picture of a good person in God’s eyes. Yes we did touch it earlier, but now its time for greater expansiveness.

I like to begin by quoting some Bible commentaries on Acts 23:1. Robertson’s Word Pictures states: “In all good conscience unto this day (pasēi suneidēsei agathēi achri tautēs tēs hēmeras). This claim seems to lack tact, but for brevity’s sake Paul sums up a whole speech in it. He may have said much more than Luke here reports along the line of his speech the day before, but Paul did not make this claim without consideration. It appears to contradict his confession as the chief of sinners (1Ti_1:13-16). But that depends on one’s interpretation of “good conscience.” The word suneidēsis is literally “joint-knowledge” in Greek, Latin (conscientia) and English “conscience” from the Latin. It is a late word from sunoida, to know together, common in O.T., Apocrypha, Philo, Plutarch, New Testament, Stoics, ecclesiastical writers. In itself the word simply means consciousness of one’s own thoughts (Heb_10:2), or of one’s own self, then consciousness of the distinction between right and wrong (Rom_2:15) with approval or disapproval. But the conscience is not an infallible guide and acts according to the light that it has (1Co_8:7, 1Co_8:10; 1Pe_2:19). The conscience can be contaminated (Heb_10:22, evil ponērās). All this and more must be borne in mind in trying to understand Paul’s description of his motives as a persecutor. Alleviation of his guilt comes thereby, but not removal of guilt as he himself felt (1Ti_1:13-16). He means to say to the Sanhedrin that he persecuted Christians as a conscientious (though mistaken) Jew (Pharisee) just as he followed his conscience in turning from Judaism to Christianity. It is a pointed disclaimer against the charge that he is a renegade Jew, an opposer of the law, the people, the temple. Paul addresses the Sanhedrin as an equal and has no “apologies” (in our sense) to make for his career as a whole. The golden thread of consistency runs through, as a good citizen in God’s commonwealth. He had the consolation of a good conscience (1Pe_3:16).”

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible states: “He said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day. However I may be reproached, my heart does not reproach me, but witnesses for me.” (1.) He had always been a man inclined to religion; he never was a man that lived at large, but always put a difference between moral good and evil; even in his unregenerate state, he was, as touching the righteousness that was in the law, blameless. He was no unthinking man, who never considered what he did, no designing man, who cared not what he did, so he could but compass his own ends. (2.) Even when he persecuted the church of God, he thought he ought to do it, and that he did God service in it. Though his conscience was misinformed, yet he acted according to the dictates of it. See Act_26:9. (3.) He seems rather to speak of the time since his conversion, since he left the service of the high priest, and fell under their displeasure for so doing; he does not say, From my beginning until this day; but, “All the time in which you have looked upon me as a deserter, an apostate, and an enemy to your church, even to this day, I have lived in all good conscience before God; whatever you may think of me, I have in every thing approved myself to God, and lived honestly,” Heb_13:18. He had aimed at nothing but to please God and do his duty, in those things for which they were so incensed against him; in all he had done towards the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, and the setting of it up among the Gentiles, he had acted conscientiously. See here the character of an honest man. [1.] He sets God before him, and lives as in his sight, and under his eyes, and with an eye to him. Walk before me, and be thou upright. [2.] He makes conscience of what he says and does, and, though he may be under some mistakes, yet, according to the best of his knowledge, he abstains from that which is evil and cleaves to that which is good. [3.] He is universally conscientious; and those that are not so are not at all truly conscientious; is so in all manner of conversation: “I have lived in all good conscience; have had my whole conversation under the direction and dominion of conscience.” [4.] He continues so, and perseveres in it: “I have lived so until this day.” Whatever changes pass over him, he is still the same, strictly conscientious. And those who thus live in all good conscience before God may, like Paul here, lift up their face without spot; and, if their hearts condemn them not, may have confidence both towards God and man, as Job had when he still held fast his integrity, and Paul himself, whose rejoicing was this, the testimony of his conscience.”

John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible states: “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day; not only from the time of his conversion, but throughout the whole of his life; for though, strictly speaking, there is no good conscience but what is awakened by the Spirit of God, and is unprincipled by his grace, and is purged from sin by the blood of Christ; in which sense he could only have a good conscience, since he believed in Christ; yet whereas in his state of unregeneracy, and even while he was a blasphemer, and persecutor, he did not act contrary to the dictates of his conscience, but according to them, in which his view was to the glory of God, and the honour of his law; he therefore says he lived before God, or unto God, in all good conscience, though an erroneous and mistaken one; he thought he ought to do what he did; and what he did, he did with a zeal for God though it was not according to knowledge: besides, the apostle has here respect to his outward moral conversation, which, before and after conversion, was very strict, and even blameless, at least unblemished before men; nobody could charge him with any notorious crime, though he did not live without sin in the sight of the omniscient God.”

John Wesley Explanatory Notes states: “Professing a clear conscience by his very countenance; and likewise waiting to see whether any of them was minded to ask him any question, said, I have lived in all good conscience before God till this day - He speaks chiefly of the time since he became a Christian. For none questioned him concerning what he had been before. And yet even in his unconverted state, although he was in an error, yet he had acted from conscience, before God - Whatever men may think or say of me.”

 

Darby’s Synopsis of the Books of the Bible Part 2: New Testament, page 994 states: “our Savior has rendered our conscience perfect, so that we can go into the sanctuary without an idea of fear, without one question as to sin arising in our minds. A perfect conscience is not an innocent conscience which, happy in its unconsciousness, does not know evil, and does not know God revealed in holiness. A perfect conscience knows God; it is cleansed, and, having the knowledge of good and evil according to the light of God Himself, it knows that it is purified from all evil according to His purity. Now the