If I am serious about being a disciple for You, Lord, I will experience the tension of living in an imperfect world. The Sermon on the Mount is beautiful sentiment to the natural man; but according to his views, it is hopelessly impossible. The reason is, the natural man fights his way through life with carnal weapons, and justifies his methods by saying, You’ve got to fight fire with fire, otherwise you’re done for!
But as Your disciple, Lord, I cannot accept that way of life. In an imperfect world I must employ spiritual principles, not carnal. For the natural man, to be carnal is life; but for me it is death. Paul says, Slaves, obey your earthly masters (Ephesians 6:5, NIV). There is no condition or compromise here. I am to be obedient always, regardless of whether I serve a perfect master. The Bible never says, “Be perfect if, or be perfect except.” God knows how imperfect, selfish, and cruel the world is; yet He says to me, “Never mind them; do as I say.”
The great temptation to a disciple is to become accommodating. So he tends to lower his behavioral standards to become acceptable to the world. It takes great courage to be a sore thumb for Jesus Christ, and that is what I will be if I insist on treating the world according to Christ’s standard. But there is no other way God can work redemptively in the natural man; he must see the alternative to the meaningless life he lives. Jesus Christ has set His disciples among unbelievers as the true examples of a life of truth and virtue, which is what the natural man longs for inwardly. I am to be perfect for his sake, as well as for God’s eternal glory. When we live that kind of life, we become [in behavior] sons of [our] heavenly Father (Matthew 5:45, Berkeley), for that is the way our Father lives.
To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure(1 Corinthians 4:11–12).
Daily with the King 