Proverbs 20:9 Commentary and Bible Study

The Christian life begins with the new birth, and at the new birth the Spirit puts in every heart a determination to be holy, and sets before each one the standard of Christ that we should be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. How far we will have to travel to reach this goal is not immediately apparent for the road goes off into the distance and out of sight and we cannot tell the twists and turns that we will encounter in the future, nevertheless we know from the start that the way is long and that this will be our life long work which we will only achieve by the power of God working in us. As we proceed, we encounter great trials along the way and at times great discouragements, but we are kept from ever giving up entirely by the faith, hope, and love that the Holy Spirit keeps alive in our hearts. We know that we must persevere to the end and that none who abandon the race can expect to receive the prize at the end, so we ‘press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:14).O, but that we could have relief from this relentless battle, we wonder at times, and the temptation comes to end the journey, the fight, the climb, prematurely. Have we not reached the goal that God set us? Have we not arrived at the standard that he set for us? Have we not made our hearts clean? Have we not done enough, so that we can rest from this life-long struggle? This desire for rest may be followed by an effort to convince ourselves that we have indeed done enough, that there is little evidence of remaining sin in us. But this is an act of self-deception, and results from a superficial evaluation of ourselves. Our battle against sin must be relentless because sin’s efforts to drag us down to hell again are relentless. We would be discouraged over and over again and give up the fight, were it not for the strong resolve that the Lord puts in our hearts, but we cannot find relief by convincing ourselves that we have now reached a state of perfection. A man who digs a well likes to see that he has dug deep enough to reach water below, and a man who climbs a mountain likes to see that he is getting nearer to the top. But the Christian is called to begin the process of sanctification and never give up, even though he never achieves his aim in this life. In this matter also he is reliant upon God and says with Paul, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans 7:24-25). Only in death does he gain the victory and that is by the supernatural transforming power of God which completes the process. Therefore we should avoid the deceitful influence of perfectionism which tells us we have arrived before our journey is really ended.