Dr. Ben Carson Continues

[Gregory Matthews]

See:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOACSFawH6Y

[phkrause]

He didn't say anything that others have not said before him!

[Tom Wetmore]

True enough.  But just because others say something doesn't improve it by repeating it. 

[joeb]

 

Sinless perfection is such a shallow goal."

Yeah, Jesus was such a shallow person.  To be like Him is such a shallow goal.   I'll take that "shallowness" over anything I see in your world view.  It's your shallowness that's showing.

[Tom Wetmore]

You quite obviously do not know what it refers to. (Rather than go off in ignorant snarky attack mode, did it occur to you to simply ask what that quote was about?)

Quite simply, the Pharisees were striving for sinless perfection (rather like some of the perfectionism strain of Adventism) by focusing on behavior. Avoid committing any sin, do not violate the letter of the law. A dead man sins not. A rock does not sin. By definition that would be sinless perfection. But Jesus rather pointedly shows us a far higher and deeper goal, righteousness. Review his "You have heard that it has been said.... but I tell you..." sermon. It's not enough to avoid doing bad things as the perfectionism of the Pharisees. To be perfectly righteous, even as the Father in heaven as Jesus said we need to be, it means we must do good. Not just to be nice to others and avoid treating people badly, but to actually love them, even as God loves us. The deep part of the saying means it must be in our hearts.

All of the lines of my signature are intended to be read and understood together. The next line is really the unshallow reminder of how hard the goal of loving perfectly, even as the Father does. What Jesus was trying to show us was that how really impossible it is for us to achieve real perfection. It's not just about being perfectly sinless. It is about being righteous. A moment's worth of introspection should reveal how far off the mark we really are. That is why the gospel of forgiveness is such good news. It is the only way we can possibly make it. We are all lost without it. Seriously.