High standards and excellence

Albion

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As we see in the Bible, Jesus taught the people concerning his standards.

We are called to have faith in him as the Savior and to trust him.

If we do have faith, therefore, we necessarily will aspire to living in accordance with those high standards. If we are disinterested, that would indicate that our faith isn't genuine.
 
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Abaxvahl

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?

Our standard is the highest it could possibly be: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

God will perfect us through grace though to achieve this, it is impossible to do on our own. We are always to be renewed and transformed by God, and He does demand this and cause it to be. We should also desire it and strive for it with the graces He gives us to act on.
 
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Maria Billingsley

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?
Welcome! Standards and excellence are not words typically used to convey obedience through Love ,which is how Jesus Christ of Nazareth taught us. Blessings.
 
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eleos1954

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth," Matthew 5:5.

If you are poor in spirit you will realize your spiritual bankruptcy. In yourself, you will see nothing in which to glory. Your ego, which you once felt was your strength, is now seen in all its smallness.

This leads to mourning over your sinfulness. All that depravity, pride and ego are now despised. But this poverty of spirit and mourning is God-produced and does not leave you in hopeless despair.

Instead, the Spirit gifts you meekness (which is humility), and you turn to God, you hunger and thirst after righteousness, and because you now feel your inability without God, you also have an acute sense of how much you need Him.

He knows our human condition and draws us to Him that through Him we might be changed.

Romans 6

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

God is not demanding .... He calls us to Love and Love is a choice. Love is not demanding .... it is reciprocal .... a response.

1 John 4:19

We love because He first loved us.
 
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Leaf473

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?
God does demand high standards, as someone has already pointed out he wants us to be perfect as he is perfect.

But I think it's important to distinguish that from the human issue of perfectionism which can be a terrible tyrant.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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Ecclesiastes 9:10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Doing things the right way is an investment in the future.

"There's never enough time to it right,
but there's always enough time to do it over."
 
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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence?


Its not about standards or excellence.

Its more a question of whether we have duties.

Genesis 1:28 - And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Having dominion over the earth, could come with a duty to responsibly take care of the planet and properly manage the environment and living things.

Christians could have other duties as well, they should tend to.


 
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Sketcher

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?
God has very high moral standards for us to follow. But he isn't a taskmaster about it.
 
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SANTOSO

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?
Beloved one,
Are you sure by accepting the way you are, that God care ?
So if you die as you are, — then you perceive God care, for you remain spiritually dead ; and that if God gave you eternal life through Christ, you perceive God didn’t care.
So next time if you are sick, you perceive God care, for you remain as you are, that you are sick; if God heals you, you perceive God didn’t care for you, for not allowing to remain sick as you are.
So if you are hurt by someone, you perceive God care for you, for you remain hurt always; if God heal the wounds in your heart, you perceive God didn’t care that you wanted to remain hurt as you are.
So all you considered it to be blessings to remain as you are, and you refuse to believe what God care you as who you are in Christ Jesus, His Son.

Beloved one, why you are troubled by high standards and excellence ? Who told the standards and excellence is high that you can’t reach ?

For we heard :
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Beloved one, believe that you are the one who also has been perfected forever if you are the one who are being sanctified.

So these high standards of perfection and excellence, have been achieved by the Lord Jesus Christ,— if you are willing to give yourself to be sanctified, this grace of God is yours. Then you will live as who you are in Christ Jesus.

May God’s peace be with you.
To God be all glory, honor, power and praise through Christ. Amen.
 
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tdidymas

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?
God calls us to higher standards. Jesus said to do good deeds so that people will see them and glorify God. However, He accepts us the way we are. IOW, we don't have to "get our act together" first before God says "you're in." 1 Jn. 5:1 "everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." So if you believe, you have a new identity in Christ, and you are accepted among the beloved of God, and you are made worthy. On that basis, we ought to love God and do all that he asks of us.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Is it a must for Christians to strive for high standards? Is it a must for Christians to strive for excellence? Does God demand high standards? Does God demand excellence? Will God just care and accept us the way we are?
Yes and no. First, we must see who we are in Christ. God judges our natural life so useless that He kills us. That life is what He gave to Adam and was defiled when Adam disobeyed God. So God crucifies us with Christ. We need new life, so God includes us in the resurrection of Christ. That's what Galatians 2:20 is about.

When we get born again, there is an inner desire to be like Christ. We don't always realise this. There is also a conflict. We have been programmed to live by thoughts, feelings and attitudes of the world. They are in conflict with God's ways. So God expects nothing from us but failure and defeat. However, He expects us to be transformed over the course of our lives. This is called the salvation of the soul, which is the goal of our faith. It is "change by exchange". As we relinquish control of our lives and allow the Lord Jesus to live in place of us, we will grow. Many of our trials and tribulations are the result of stubborn self will. When we realise that an attitude is holding us back, we need to ask the Lord to deliver us in that area. For example, to me patience is sick people in a hospital. I'm not naturally patient. I need the patience of Christ. And that word patience includes the idea of enduring. The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint.

God loves us enough to accept us just as we are. And He is merciful and caring enough not to leave us just as we are. I know what I was like when I was first saved. I was a total mess. God has done a wonderful work in my life and He's not finished yet. As a friend of mine used to say, "God is easy please but impossible to satisfy.

It speaks of our faith as being refined like gold in the fire. The imagery is of a goldsmith heating up the gold until it melts. He removes the dross that floats to the top. When does he know that the gold is pure? When he can see his reflection.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
 
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