Perfect Makes Practice
Does being a Christian take practice? This question, though it might seem absurd on the surface, seems to inform a lot of what we spend our time as Christians doing. At a recent gathering, a speaker told a group of clergy something that we’d heard many times: that our relationship with Christ is much like any relationship we have in our lives. Like friendships, familial relationships, and intimate relationships, our bond with Christ must be managed, tended, and cultivated, or else it might wither and die away. In other words, in the same way that old friends can grow apart, Christians can become estranged from their Savior.
The ways in which we Christians endeavor to remain (or become) close to Jesus are often referred to as spiritual “disciplines” (or “practices,” for those for whom “discipline” is a dirty word). Meditation, prayer, fasting, and solitude are just some of the “practices” that Christians engage in to cultivate “A Closer Walk with Thee.” Yours and mine might be different, but we all have things that we do to get the thing that we want most: intimacy with Jesus. In other words, practice makes perfect. The better you practice, the more perfect your relationship with Christ becomes.
Let me suggest to you that, while spiritual practice can help you feel closer to Christ (which is a wonderful thing!), they are completely impotent in achieving that closeness.
Let us take St. Peter as our example. Selected as a disciple, Peter was as close to Christ, physically and personally, as anyone has ever been. Yet he consistently misunderstood Jesus’ teaching, to the point that Jesus once referred to him as Satan himself (Matt 16:23)! Famously, Peter’s last experience of the pre-crucified Christ was his promise to never leave or forsake him, even unto prison or death (Luke 22:33). This proclamation didn’t stop Peter from fulfilling Jesus’ prediction about his faithfulness, denying him three times that very evening. Peter’s practice was far from perfect!
By our every word and action, we, like Peter, run from God. Paul makes this clear in Romans 3:10-11: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” We live our lives and make our decisions as though there is no God; we consistently think of ourselves first, before God and others; and when we regard God at all, we form him into our own image.
But, as always, there is Good News! When the women find the tomb empty on Easter morning, it is presided over by a young man with a message. “Tell the disciples, and Peter,” he says, “that Jesus is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” Jesus preserves and cements what ought to be a broken relationship with Peter! By all rights, Peter should be very worried about the state of his friendship with this risen Christ he denied knowing. But their relationship doesn’t depend on Peter; it depends solely on Christ.
The same is true of us. We pray, we have quiet times, we walk labyrinths, we do myriad things to cultivate our relationship with our savior. But let us never worry that he is absent or estranged, for he has assured us that he will be with us “always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). For Christians, then, it is not “practice makes perfect.” It’s something closer to “Christ’s perfection frees you to practice.” In him, our relationship is always secure, and in him, our practice, whatever it is, is made perfect.
Filed under: Blogs, Contributors
I think helpful is helpful to make a theological distinction between fellowship and relationship.
Fellowship is the experiential closeness that we have with God. Relationship is the objective reality of that we have on the basis of the work of Christ. Our experience of fellowship with God can fluctuate in proportion to how we cultivate our intimacy with God. But the relationship is immutable reality and in fact enables our fellowship with God.
and Peter’s practice was before Christ’s death and resurrection enabled him the incredible gift to be born again of the Spirit! – so an excellent example that it is only Christ in us, that is our only hope! Without Him in us, we can do nothing! He is the vine and we are the branches! Thank you.
Right on! I’m in the middle of doing a careful study of 1 John, and this very morning (11/02/2012) I posted a study of 1 John 3:4-10, Everyone who practices. I think certain “hole in the hole in hole of our holiness” types do violence to the context when they interpret this passage harshly, because it is everyone who has this hope fixed on Him who purifies themselves (1 John 3:3). This implies that there is ongoing impurity, does it not? The pure do not need purification.
The way of purification is the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7) and applying the blood to our present circumstance (1 John 1:9). The distinguishing factor for those who are heading toward greater purity is the fixation of our hope. If you examine the text closely, and this bears out to pretty much all of the NT, there is an observation that the Christian is heading towards purity, but there is no imperative that says, purify yourself and then you will have hope. It says, trust in Christ and Him crucified, and then you will have the hope that purifies.
I could go on and on, but what I really mean to say is, AMEN! I don’t often comment, but I read every shred of what is posted on this site. Many thanks for this ministry…
Right on indeed!!! Thanks for the good news.
“Does being a Christian take practice?”
I came across this great passage in my reading this morning in Hebrews with so many great ‘practice’ prescriptions in just a few verses that I thought I’d share…..
draw near; have sincere heart; hold fast hope; stimulate and assemble together; encourage one another; stop willful sinning; remember; endure sufferings; show sympathy; have confidence and assurance; endure more; do God’s will; don’t shrink back; and live by faith!
for He who promised is faithful!
Heb 10 19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume he adversaries 28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” And again, ”The Lord will judge His people” 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, 33 partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. 34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. 35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.37For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. 38 But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Love it, Nick. Great post.
Excellent!