Aug 26, 2014

Young Adult PreCon 2014

by William Villalpando

 

If we read 1 Thessalonians 5:15-24, we are given a list of commands and expectations.  These expectations include not seeking revenge (“Make sure that nobody pays back an eye for an eye”), rejoicing always, praying continuously, giving thanks in all situations, refusing to quench the Holy Spirit and not treating prophecies with contempt. Because of who we are, we fail in this sense. Yet, this verse ends with an awesome message: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (Matthew 5:23-24). The first part of this verse becomes much more personal when the word sanctify is replaced with its definition. “May God himself, the God of peace, set you apart as holy through and through”. As humans we are obviously not perfect, but this does not mean that all is over. Jesus came and died on the cross in order to forgive us.  Reread the above verse with the definition for sanctify substituted: May God set you apart as holy.  This is outstanding! God loves us beyond all measure and despite our imperfections, he wants to be with us and thus sets us aside as holy. We, who are imperfect, stained, and torn, are set apart by God as holy. Despite our failures, our God will set us aside as holy. Yet, this does not give us permission to stop trying to be perfect. God, our heavenly father, tells us that we must be perfect. Yet we continue to proclaim that we are not perfect and thus give up.  If we look at Matthew 5:48 it says “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.  Just because we cannot be perfect does not mean that we should not be striving to be perfect. He has commanded that we should be perfect, thus it should be our goal.  This year’s Young Adult PreCon explored a subject that needs to be understood. God made us to be perfect and thus that must be our final goal. We must strive to be perfect.