Greetings All,
Today I thought I would give you some thoughts on "perfection" or
"perfectionism." I should warn you right from the start
that I believe perfection is unattainable in this life, and that
perfectionism (as an overall life-principle) is the cause of much
despair, frustration and joylessness in the lives of people.
I have had to encourage many a despairing person to either lower their
perfectionistic standards, or accept the fact that they will never
experience joy, since setting absurdly high standards of perfection
always causes us to see only the flaws, or mistakes, or the things that
need to be fixed (whether it be in us, or the things we do, or in
others, or the things they do). Perfectionists
do not tend to be happy campers. I speak as a recovering perfectionist
myself, who would have to agree with Hugh Prather when he said: "Perfectionism is slow death.”
If I understand the Bible correctly, since the fall of man perfection
has walked the face of the earth once and only once, and that was in the
person of Jesus. All others "have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We are
to grow and mature and pursue Christlikeness, but we will never even
approach attaining such perfection in this life (I John 1:8-9). In
fact, coming to admit our imperfections, as well as our inability to
ever reach perfection in this life, is the first step on the path
to salvation, and one of the main steps in the process of
sanctification.
We can miss the purpose of Christ's perfection if we think it is only an example or ideal for us to pursue. Richard Sibbes, the great Puritan divine, put it so well when he once wrote: "What
is the Gospel itself but a merciful moderation, in which Christ's
obedience is esteemed ours, and our sins laid upon Him; wherein God,
from being our judge, becomes our Father, pardoning our sins and
accepting our obedience, though feeble and blemished... The law
requires personal, perpetual, and perfect obedience... but under the
covenant of grace it must have an evangelical mitigation. A sincere
endeavor proportionable to grace is received and accepted." Jesus lived our perfection for us, and God counts His perfection
as if it were ours if we will only trust in Him. That's the wonder of the Gospel.
The following thoughts, taken from many sources, offer many varied insights into the quest for human perfection. Enjoy.
"We shall never come to the perfect man till we come to the perfect world."
Matthew Henry
"This is the very perfection of a man -- to
find out his own imperfections... If you should say, 'It is enough, I
have reached perfection,' all is lost, since it is the function of
perfection to make one know one's own imperfections. ”
St. Augustine
“People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot
have,
and looking for it where they will never find it.”
Edith Schaffer
"It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are."
Sir James Mackintosh
"The search for perfection begins with detecting imperfection.”
Anonymous
"Aim
at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However,
they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose
laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.”
Lord Chesterfield
"Ideals are like the stars -- we never reach them, but like the mariners of old traversing the sea
we chart our course by them."
Carl Schurz
"The
biblical demand for perfection (under the law) was meant to drive us
away from looking to ourselves for salvation and lead us right into the
arms of Jesus."
With hope that you will
find your resting place there, Pastor Jeff
