But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:4).
The scripture makes us to understand that whatever God does is perfect. “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He”. Deut. 32:4.
Jesus, the Word of God who came into this world in the flesh is the perfect wisdom of God, ( 1. Cor. 1:24), Lucifer before he fell was described as the perfect sum of all beauty. God testifying of Lucifer says: “ You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty”. (Ezekiel 28:12).
Having established that God is a God of perfection we must also understand that His perfect work is not just for show-off but it is his nature and he equally wants to share this nature with His us.
Paul to the Philippians and also to us who have come to believe in Christ says “and I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. ( Philippians 1:6).
God wants to do a perfect work in us like He did with the saint but we hinder him with our impatience, fear and worldliness. Until we come to a position in faith where a patience attitude of prayer is all we have we may continue to hinder God from bringing us into His perfect will for us.
However, let it be known that impatience and worldliness have led many away into the wrong avenue, even though Christians, they have designed their own path away from the perfect will of God, and of such Paul wrote:
“for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia”. (II Tim.4:10).
Why would Demas design and follow his own path away from the perfect will of God in this matter? Impatience driven by worldly thoughts, worldly ambition and pleasure. He found the path to the perfect will of God too burdensome and probably too foolish. He allowed impatience to become his driver.
He however forgot that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ( 1. Cor. 1:25).
If we must be brought into God’s perfect will on any matter we must not only ask God to endue us with the spirit of patience but also with the spirit of wisdom for direction. It will take both virtues to enter into the perfect will of God.
It is the sovereign will of God to patiently bring about his perfect work in His children, not in an hour, but in His own timing until he has removed the shaft of emotions and sentiments to allow them to be grounded in the real faith.
His objective is to use His gifts to bring us into maturity and to wean us from our fleshly campaign and desires.
A writer says, until the soul be quite unmoved by any attack of Satan, the work cannot be deemed “perfect.”
However, allowing God to perfect His work is more than being inactive or apathetic but much more about a conscious and patient trust in God, that He is able to perfect all that pertains to us. So we must trust him to instruct- to know when to wait and when to move.
What does perfection means in this context? Is it that we are now flawless in our character? No!
However it means we have come to commit our all to God in such away that our waiting on him or our actions are not driven by fear or worldly ambitions but by a trust in Jesus, free from worldly care, afraid of nothing but God, fear of God here means to be quick to do his bidding against all odds.
Hebrews 12: 1-17
