In The Master's Service

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AS HIS MASTER

Elder Mark Green

"The disciple is not above his master. but every one that is perfect shall be as his master" (Luke 6.40).

It is impossible for us to excel our Lord in any wise. It matters not what quality or aspect we might consider: none of us will ever surpass Him. The disciple does not surpass his master, for if he did, then the disciple would become the master. It is impossible to surpass perfection, and Jesus was perfect. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," He told the twelve, and He and the Father are one in perfection as in all other attributes. Our goal should be to live without fault. We know from the Bible that we will not do that - indeed we have already fallen short of that mark - but we are still to be pressing toward it. We could not, however, surpass it. The disciple will never be above his master.

If we were to achieve perfection, it would come by being like Jesus. When we imitate His footsteps, we are imitating perfection. If we could achieve a kind of perfection, even in a strictly relative and very limited sense, it would be by following His example. Since our Master is perfect, if we would be perfect, it will come by making our actions be as His were.

Jesus makes this comment regarding the relationship of disciples and masters so that we may see that, compared to His perfect example, we fall far short. We are not above our Master; we are not equal to Him; we do not even remotely compare to His spotless record. Remembering this gives us an entirely different perspective when we begin to contemplate the imperfections of our neighbors. "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" (v. 41). This is such a common thing among men. We generally tend to overlook or minimize our own faults, and focus attention upon the shortcomings of others. If, however, we have been contemplating the perfections of our Lord and Master, we will realize how much better and greater He is than we are. If we compare ourselves with Him, we will know that we are great sinners. However, if we turn from contemplating the vast gulf between ourselves and the Lord, and turn to examine our neighbors, whose faults are not much different from ours, they will not seem to be so great. The distance between our own vile natures and the spotless perfection of Christ is to infinitely vast that, even if we were surpassing our comrades in some particular, it is of no consequence when compared with the great chasm between our sinfulness and Jesus' holiness.