FOLLOW THE LEADERamount of time, energy and effort. To strive to do things well that affect
people is important. To strive to develop spiritually and please God is our
highest calling. But to be driven toward perfection in non-people things
can easily become sick and distorted. I know of men who can never finish
washing their car until every water spot is gone. I know women who can
never rest until every speck of dust is cleaned from their homes. And
yet many of these same people who have such obsessions with material
things, tolerate very bad habits in their lives – and in the lives of their
children. Many people in the Western world become obsessed with
clothes and externals. Before they will step out of the house, everything
must be perfectly matched and stylishly coordinated. Yet many of these
same people show little or no concern over how they look on the inside
to God.
We must learn to put the emphasis where it belongs. We must put first
things first. We should strive for perfection in the things that are eternal –
and learn to give less attention to things that are only temporal.
Jesus said: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
He said this at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in which He was
teaching about ethics, morals, and interpersonal things that have to do
with our character. Ultimately, only these things determine our eternal
destiny. In the areas of the spirit, we should constantly strive toward
perfection through the power of the Holy Spirit. In the things that are
only temporal and short-lived, we should not become obsessed.
As good leaders, we should always seek to be good stewards of our time,
energy and efforts by seeking to do our best in everything we do. But if
we do not have our priorities straight, we will put the emphasis in the
wrong place. We may achieve a degree of perfection in things that will
one day be reduced to ashes in the fire of God’s judgment. It is then
that we will wish that we had sought more for the spiritual perfection of
Christ-likeness!
As Paul said, the world has only seen one model of perfection – and
that is the Lord Jesus (Eph. 4:12-13). When Paul said we should strive
for maturity, he used the word teleios. It is often translated as “perfect” in
the New Testament. Something that is teleios is “anything that has reached