Nobody is Perfect. I am a Nobody. Therefore, I am Perfect

‘Nobody is Perfect. I am a Nobody. Therefore, I am Perfect.’ are the words I recall seeing on a badge that was quite popular for some time. At first look, I thought this was something quite ingenious, kind of like a very clever way to justify oneself.

But after some pondering, putting its humour aside, I felt much truth and depth beneath this words.

Matthew 5:48 -”Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This are the very words of Jesus as he taught the Sermon on the Mount. He calls us christians to an extremely high calling, which is to live a perfect lives as our Father in heaven is perfect. 

Reading through the passages before this verse, I personally find this calling impossible to live out. Jesus calls us to turn our left cheek after being slapped on the right, to give up our coat after our shirt has been taken away and to go and extra mile after being forced to go for one. Many times, I have been ’slapped on my right cheek’, but I didn’t ‘give my left’. In fact, there was no way I could have ‘given my left cheek’ humanly speaking. To do so would be foolishness.

From this mere commandment from our Lord, I have fallen short of the perfection he has called me to. Even in other aspects of my life, I find it so difficult, or else impossible, to live out this calling to be perfect. I am always so sinful and disobedient to God that I am far from being perfect.

But Nobody is Perfect. So it doesn’t matter, does it?

Well, it does matter if this is God’s commandment to me. There has to be some way for me to be perfect so as to live out God’s commandment in Matthew 5:48.

I got the answer from this: I am a Nobody. Therefore, I am Perfect.

Many a times, I am not perfect because I long to be a Somebody. 

Maybe not so much in great things, but even in small things we accomplished, we never fail to claim some recongition for ourselves. I believe every one of us wants to be a Somebody deep down inside, be it a BIG Somebody or a small Somebody. Hence, we often even boast of  little things to make ourselves feel valued or slightly great in some aspects of our lives.

Just if we could be a Nobody, I believe we could be perfect.

It is when I am a Nobody that I give myself to God and I give all glory to God. If I still cling on to any hopes of being a Somebody, even in service or doing good works,  I can never be perfect.

Hence in Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “…it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” 

By living for myself, I am bound to be wanting to be a somebody. This is a very natural thing to me. Hence, I no longer should live, but Christ should live in me and for me.

Therefore in Galatians 4:19, he says, “…until Christ is form in you.” in Philippians 1:6 , he says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus”

When I become nobody and allow Christ to live in me until he is form in me, his life would become my life. What a wonderful revelation this is that Christ would live our lives until he is formed in us!

Christ our Lord is Perfect and the life he lived on earth is perfect. He has begun the good work in us and he will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Therefore, we could be perfect in Christ.

Thank you, Lord, that through you we could live out your commandment in Matthew 5:48, because we no longer live, but you live in us.