Run With It: Imperfect People and a Perfect God

Some of you have probably seen these memes on social media where they list the weaknesses and sins of some of the people in the Bible. They will tell you that Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossip, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, and Moses stuttered, etc.

And then they quote: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

But that is out of context. The context was that Paul was receiving visions and revelations from God. So to keep him from becoming conceited, a thorn was given him in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him. Three times he pleaded with the Lord that it should leave him, but God replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So, this had nothing to do with Paul sinning against the Lord nor with him being human.

This was fully about Paul, a man of God, who walked in holiness and in righteousness, and in walks of obedience to the Lord, and not in sin, being given visions and revelations from God. And so God (the only one who would or who could) gave him that thorn in the flesh (not defined for us, other than it was a messenger of Satan) to keep him from becoming conceited. And God is not going to give him sin nor would he refuse to deliver him from sin.

And God’s power is not perfected in sin. And his grace is not sufficient for us if we are walking in sin. And the “weakness” he was talking about was not sin. For, again, God is not going to refuse to deliver us from sin. Jesus Christ died on that cross that we might die to sin and live to his righteousness. He shed his blood to redeem us out of our lives of living in sin so that we will now live holy lives in walks of obedience to his commands.

So, God is not okay with any of us being adulterers, liars, cheats, murderers, thieves, drunkards, rebellious, gossips, deserters, and hot tempered, etc. His grace is not sufficient for us if we are walking in any of these sins and if we are not walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living. And yes, some of these, who were people of God, did sin against the Lord at some time in their lives. But many (or all) of them repented and did not continue in those sins.

But what is the message that the meme is giving to us by including the passage from 2 Corinthians 12:9? It is implying that Paul's weakness was sin, and not just one sin, but addictive sin, that God's power was being perfected in Paul's sinful addiction, and that God's grace was sufficient to cover his addictive sin, and while God refused to deliver him from this addictive sin, but that God's grace would sustain him.

So, it is saying to us that we can be Christians and still live (walk) in sin against the Lord, that God may refuse to deliver us from our sin, but that God’s grace is going to cover it all. Just not biblical! Does God’s grace cover our sins? Not if we continue in those sins habitually and deliberately. For God’s grace is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus’ return (Titus 2:11-14).

Will we be absolutely perfect ever while we live in these flesh bodies on this earth? I don’t believe we will be. For the word “perfect” means, “to bring to an end, complete, finish, accomplish, consummation, finish the necessary process, reaching the end” (Bible Hub .com). We are to be in the process of being made perfect, but the perfection will not be completed until Jesus returns and he takes his faithful ones to be with him for eternity.

Philippians 3:12: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

But lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin, and for not walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands. For if sin is what we practice (obey) and not obedience to our Lord, then the Scriptures teach us that we don’t know God, he doesn’t know us, we are not born of God, we are of the devil, and we will not inherit eternal life with God, but we will face the wrath of God, instead.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

So, don’t buy into these memes which try to convince you that you can continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord and that God’s grace is sufficient for you and that his grace will cover it all. Just not biblical! Don’t buy into the lies that try to tell you that you can serve God and the devil at the same time, and that even if sin is what you practice that heaven is still guaranteed you when you die. That’s a lie from hell.

But if our faith in the Lord is genuine, and even though sin is not what we practice, but obedience to our Lord is what we practice, that doesn’t guarantee that we will never fail or that we will never sin again. We might, but that is not permission to sin. For the Bible makes it clear that if we make sin our practice that we will die in our sins. And many are going to hear God say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.”

The Battle for Truth

An Original Work / May 18, 2013

Based off Malachi 1-4