There’s a line most of us grew up hearing as an order.
Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Said in the way we speak now, it lands like a demand. Be perfect. Be perfect. Why won’t you be perfect?
I’d like to offer another way to hear it.
The words attributed to Jesus in the four Gospels were written down decades after he spoke them. The one written closest to the crucifixion came 25 or 30 years later. The scribes had been telling these stories for years and years before anyone set them down.
Consider also that Jesus spoke Aramaic. His words were translated into Hebrew, a language without punctuation, then into Greek, into Latin, into English.
Things shift along a road that long.
I studied with Rocco Errico in ministerial school. He’s a true expert in those languages and in the teachings of Jesus. One of the things he taught us is that Jesus more likely called God the Beloved rather than the Father.
The moment I heard that, it made perfect sense to me.
God as the Beloved. And we are the Beloved of the Beloved.
A Course in Miracles teaches that the Beloved has one Son, and the Son of God is the Christ, and we are the Christ.
Now consider that earlier line again. Not as future tense. As present fact.
We be perfect already.
You are perfect, as your Creator is perfect, because we are one with our Creator.
Here’s why this matters so much for self-attack.
When we attack ourselves, we’re attacking our Creator. We’re attacking the Beloved.
We’re saying God is wrong. God made a mistake. God has failed, and I’m the one who’s right.
That’s a heavy thing to carry, even unconsciously.
The self-attack alone produces repercussions we’d feel. Add the second layer, that we’re also attacking God, and you can see how self-attack leads to tremendous anxiety, fear, guilt, blame, and shame.
None of it is necessary.
None of it is true. Today, I only think the thoughts I think with God.
If you’d like to have more Love than fear in your life and relationships, consider my
Finding Freedom From Fear Bootcamp which starts next month. It’s 90 days of moving out of coping and into real trust, faith and listening to the higher wisdom, together.
If you missed my Deep Dive Workshop, Why Am I So Hard On Myself? You can get it now on Instant Download. If self-attack and criticism is your struggle, this will give you a practice to lead you out of the pain. This is a habit that can be dissolved.
My next FREE Forgiveness Workshops is Saturday August 29. Come as you are, however you can. You don’t have to feel ready. You don’t have to have done any prep work. Your willingness is all that’s required. Click for more info: powerofloveministry.net/
