Vietnam Evangelical Covenant Church – “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith expressed through love.” (Galatians 5:6)
Many Christians live under pressure to always be right, always be good, never make mistakes. Demanding perfection of ourselves can look like holiness, but it can actually be a weight that keeps us from running the race of faith. This article helps us lay aside the burden of perfectionism. Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
The proverb “Perfect is the enemy of good” has been around a long time. More recently, experts have tweaked it to stress the consequence: “Perfect is the enemy of done.” We all know what this means. We have all at times abandoned something we could have done because we were afraid we could not do it perfectly. We call it perfectionism.
What Drives Perfectionism?
What we call perfectionism is not the same as pursuing excellence, although the two can be hard to separate. When we pursue excellence, we resolve to do something as well as we can within our limited abilities, resources and time. Perfectionism, however, is a compulsive pride, or fear, that either binds us to an obsession with doing something perfectly or paralyzes us from doing anything at all. Both lead to a harmful neglect of other necessary or good things.
So what lies behind our perfectionist tendencies? We are complex beings, so it is rarely just one thing. In unusual cases, the root may be a clinical disorder or a spiritual burden. But as a rule, perfectionism almost always grows from our desire for approval and our fear of rejection. It may be a general fear of what others think of us, or a distorted, conditioned fear of failure absorbed from a present or past authority. And if we are honest, sometimes it is a convenient excuse to avoid doing something hard. In other words, it is not really perfectionism at all, just self-indulgence in disguise.
Perfectionism is a common temptation we all face in the fight against sin. And the good news is that God wants us to live in freedom from its rule.
“You Must Be Perfect”
But to understand and believe this, we must first understand what sounds like a contradiction in Jesus’ words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). That certainly sounds like a demand for literal perfection. And it is, and it is not.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus affirmed a standard that fallen humans cannot reach: no anger, no lust, no divorce, no oaths, no revenge, and love for our enemies. But just before He reached the “perfect” part of His sermon, Jesus gave us a clue: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Jesus came to fulfill God’s demand for perfection on our behalf.
That is why the New Testament writers say things like, “For by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). That is the key to understanding what Jesus meant, and the key to our freedom from the grip of perfectionism. Because Jesus lived perfectly, died and rose again for us, He purchased perfection for us. And the Father, though He knows all our remaining sin, sees us as righteous in Christ. In God’s eyes we are perfect through faith in Jesus, which frees us from needing to earn approval from God or anyone else through perfection. We are free to engage imperfectly in the holy fight against sin!
The Imperfect Saints of Scripture
Nowhere does Scripture encourage us to aim for perfectionism. Instead, it promises a perfection already purchased now (2 Corinthians 5:21) and a perfection still to come (Revelation 21:3–4), as a free gift of God’s grace, so that we can be free from perfectionism.
That is why God shows us the weaknesses of the heroes of faith in Scripture. Abraham, a great example of faith, has the story of Hagar. Moses, God’s great prophet, disobeyed God at the rock. Aaron, God’s high priest, had the golden calf. David, God’s chosen king, had his sin with Bathsheba. Peter, Christ’s great apostle, displays his flaws in the Gospels and beyond (Galatians 2:11–14). Acts and the Epistles give us a full picture of the imperfect lives of the first Christians.
God knows our temptations and our bent toward perfectionism, so He filled Scripture with stories of His amazing grace and patience with sinners who kept fighting sin imperfectly and stumbling throughout their earthly lives. He wants us to know that perfection in both action and motive lies completely outside our experience for now.
Living Free From Perfectionism
God has something better for us to strive for than our own perfection, which in the end only enslaves us. Perfectionism can look admirable, but its great danger is self-focus. Because it is driven by pride or by fear of not being approved, it is really centered on ourselves, not on God or others. In other words, perfectionism, even in the fight against sin, is not driven by love or faith. And “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).
But God wants us free, free from the grip of pride and fear. He wants us to live freely, knowing that He has covered all our perfection problems, past, present and future. In our ongoing fight against sin, God is not looking for flawless outward performance or flawless inner motives; He is looking for love and faith.
You Are Free to Fight Imperfectly
God is calling us into the wonderful new experience of taking our eyes off ourselves and how we measure up, and fixing them on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). He wants us to stop chasing, or being paralyzed by, perfectionism so that we are free to pursue love (1 Corinthians 14:1; 1 Timothy 1:5) and wholehearted trust in Him (Proverbs 3:5). And if perfectionism has a strong hold on us, God will mercifully arrange circumstances that defeat our best efforts to “succeed” against sin until we understand where our freedom comes from. In Christ, you are free! You are free to follow Jesus imperfectly. You are free to fight the fight of faith imperfectly, because that is the only way you will ever fight it.
Perfectionism is a weight we must lay aside to run the race of faith (Hebrews 12:1). God does not want us focused on performing perfectly; He wants us focused on living with childlike, dependent faith expressed through acts of love (Galatians 5:6).
Free From the Pressure to Be Perfect
Scripture calls us to be holy, but it does not require us to manufacture our own perfection. Perfect righteousness has already been accomplished for us by Jesus. When we understand this, we can grow without being crushed by the fear of failure.
This week, notice the moments when you are hard on yourself over a small mistake. Instead of blaming yourself, bring it to God, receive His forgiveness and keep walking.
You may also like: Kill Your Pet Sin Before It Kills You and Be Patient With Your Slow Spiritual Growth.
Prayer
Lord, thank You that our righteousness does not come from being perfect, but from Jesus. Help us lay down the burden of perfectionism and live in Your grace every day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Article: Communications Ministry – Vietnam Evangelical Covenant Church
Adapted from: DesiringGod.org
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