When I am at home and spending time in my study more often then not I am reading a classic holiness book. I have been trying to work my way through some of the books that motivated and challenged me as a very young follower of Christ.
Today I am posting some words found in William McDonald's book, Saved to the Uttermost. In this volume he writes the following about the subject of "perfect love."
"Infallibility is not a fruit of grace. While human ideals of perfection leave no margin for innocent mistakes and unavoidable errors, Divine ideals allow many to exist in connection with perfect love. A perfectly faultless being, according to human judgement, was never found among men.
Human estimates of perfection differ, it would seem from the Divine. Men judge by the outward appearance; God judges by the heart. We are not speaking of sins such as violations of the moral law; but of errors in conduct, mistakes in judgement, etc.
Hence we come to the conclusion, that to demand perfect conduct, according to human ideals, is to raise the standard of holiness too high. It may co-exist with a thousand mistakes and infirmities. It is "love made perfect, " and not judgement made infallible." (pg. 11-15)
McDonald wrote published these words in the very early 1900's. This standard of holiness and perfect love is both sane and attainable. It is full of the grace found in the Bible but not so much preached in certain circles of folks that view themselves as being "protectors" of the holiness message. I in no way condone a Calvinist or "sinning religion" viewpoint however many times in my past I have seen an obsessiveness that drives people to be hard on themselves over and over until they eventually just give up and live with a defeated and negative view of themselves. God's grace is there for us daily and when living a surrendered life, we acknowledge our mistakes, ask God for His help and move forward in faith.
