Be Perfect with the Lord, your God

The chief hindrance in the way of obedience to this command [‘Be ye perfect with the Lord your God,’ Deut 18.13] lies in our misapprehension of what religion is. Man was created simply to live for God, to show forth His glory, by allowing God to show how completely He could reveal His likeness and blessedness in man. God lives for man; longing in the greatness of His love to communicate His goodness and His love.

It was to this life, lost by sin, Christ came to redeem us back. The selfishness of the human heart looks upon salvation as simply the escape from hell, with so much of holiness as is needed to make our happiness secure. Christ meant us to be restored to the state from which we had fallen – the whole heart, the whole will, the whole life given up to the glory and service of God.

To be wholly given up to God, to be perfect with the Lord our God, lies at the very root, is the very essence, of true religion. The enthusiastic devotion of the whole heart to God is what is asked of us.