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You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

-Matthew 5:43-48

(If you worshiped with us this past Sunday, this Scripture might ring a bell. It was the text Rev. Geoff preached on. My apologies if I repeat anything he said. I am writing this on Wednesday the 19th so as I write these words, I haven't heard his sermon yet.)

When I became a Methodist, I encountered a question I had never been asked before:

“Are you going on to perfection?”

I had no idea how to answer it.

Who could possibly say yes to that? It seemed so blunt. So matter-of-fact. It flew in the face of the Southern gentility with which I had been raised. Frankly, I found the question a little offensive.

Did I expect to become perfect? Certainly not! I am far too familiar with my own deficiencies to imagine that some flawless version of me is waiting just over the spiritual horizon.

So I struggled with the question.

And slowly, after years of study, I began to understand what our Methodist tradition means when it asks whether we are “going on to perfection.”

Perfection is not about becoming flawless. It is about becoming perfect in love.

John Wesley understood the Christian life as the long work of God's grace within us. God does not merely forgive us and leave us exactly as we are. The Holy Spirit continues working in us—sanctifying us, shaping our desires, changing our habits, teaching us to love God and our neighbors more completely.

In fact, that is what I have been writing about all week.

When Christ says, “Come and see,” and we respond with curiosity, we are participating in that work.

When we open Scripture and ask the Spirit to open our eyes, we are participating in that work.

When we submit our understanding to a community of disciples and learn from one another, we are participating in that work.

When we become doers of the Word and allow Scripture to change the way we live, we are participating in that work.

We are going on to perfection.

That doesn't mean we stop failing—like St. Paul, I count myself a pretty practiced sinner—it means that by God's grace we keep growing.

Jesus gives us an astonishing picture of what that growth ultimately looks like: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Anyone can love the people who love them. Jesus says even tax collectors manage that. Christian love reaches farther. Can we learn to genuinely love not only our family and friends, not only people who are kind to us, but people who oppose us? People who wound us? People we would much rather avoid?

Then Jesus says: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This is the perfection toward which grace is drawing us: a heart being made perfect in love.

I don't expect to arrive there tomorrow.

But I do want to be moving.

Perhaps you do too.

And perhaps you aren't sure what your next step should be.

If so, I invite you to join me for Disciple Bible Study beginning after Labor Day. Registration is open on the church website. We will study Scripture deeply, ask questions, learn from one another, and seek to put what we learn into practice.

Together we are becoming more like Christ.

Together we are going on

Rev. Ryan Young