PERFECTION IS UNACHIEVABLE IN THIS LIFE

There is no perfect Church.  Why?  Because there are no perfect Christians. The reason?  Because we will not be like Jesus until we meet Him face-to-face.  The Apostle John wrote:
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be:  but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 Jn. 3:2).

The Apostle Paul wrote that we do not deserve to be God's children, but that Christians are saved by grace (unmerited favor) and not by our worthiness through doing good.  He wrote:
"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God:  not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).

Paul tells us that our ultimate Christ-likeness will be completed by the One Who gives us our "new birth":
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:3-6).

In the mean time, like Paul, we struggle with our efforts to live for Christ and to serve our fellow man; he described our inward battle (note that he is speaking in the present tense):
"For we know that the Law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.  For that which I do I allow not:  for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the Law that it is good.  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing:  for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man:  but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Rom. 7:14-25).

 

Be patient with yourself and with others; God is not finished with us yet!