Warts and All?

Most of us recognize our sinfulness. We recognize our imperfection. We realize that, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we strive to do better, we always fall short. And this is good.



It’s important that we recognize our sinfulness. It’s important that we recognize our inability to change ourselves. Without this recognition, we would never understand our need for salvation or look to Jesus in faith.



We would, instead, continue to look to ourselves. We would continue to trust in ourselves. And, in this way, we would miss out on this great blessing of God.



The problem is that we often resign ourselves to the sin with which we struggle. We tell ourselves that this is just the way we are. We tell ourselves that there is no changing. And for this reason, we believe that we, as well as others, have to accept ourselves warts and all.



In addition to recognizing our sin and our weakness, we must also realize that, in Jesus, we have hope. We must realize that he’s able to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We must realize that he can change us for the better.

In 1 Thessalonians 3, starting in verse 12, Paul says: “…and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

We have hope because the Lord can make us to increase and abound in love. He is able to establish our hearts blameless in holiness before God. Although we are naturally selfish and self-centered, the Lord is able to work within us.  He is able to transform us.

I’m not suggesting that we can be perfect on this side of eternity. Our sinful nature will remain a part of us until the end. However, we must not resign ourselves to the sins with which we struggle.

We must, of course, bring our sin to him in a spirit of confession. We must acknowledge to him our guilt, asking for his forgiveness. But we can also ask God to help us with our sinful desires and tendencies. We can ask him for strength that we might love one another as he’s called us.

As we do so, we can trust that God can and will produce growth in our lives. We can trust that he will produce in us the fruit of faith.  We can have hope that, by his grace, things can change for the better.