Who’s Perfect? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley

Another typo! As hard as I try, my texting is never perfect, nor is my writing. I have posted a blog and later re-read it and found a misspelled word that I did not catch previously. If only I could be perfect…

I’d like to be a perfect housekeeper.

I’d like to always have perfect hair.

I want to be the perfect spouse and friend.

I desire to be a perfect mother.

And I know I fall short of perfection in all of these areas.

But the Bible says we can reach perfection in the following ways:

  1. We can be perfect in the way we follow God. Matthew 5:48 says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (ESV) I believe this kind of perfection has to do with behavior. Psalm 101:2 says, “I will behave wisely in a perfect way.”
  2. We can be perfect in how we treat others. If we allow it, God’s perfect love can flow through us. “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).
  3. We can be perfect in our response to God’s Word. Staying in the Word daily is key. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7, ESV)
John Wesley

While no longer in the Methodist Church, I spent thirty years in Methodism and have a Methodist seminary degree, I became a fan of the father of Methodism, John Wesley, who also believed we could achieve a form of perfection. According to the Methodist Church, “By ‘perfection, Wesley did not mean moral flawlessness or sinlessness. He meant perfection in the sense of maturity. Wesley believed we could become perfect in love in this life. If Jesus invites us to seek perfection, perfect love is possible. He didn’t mean we would be free from mistakes, temptation or failure.”[1]

So how would you like to be more perfect? We will always have some rough spots but God will continue to use his holy sandpaper and polish us until we meet Him in Heaven. That’s when everything will finally be perfect.

“…Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).


[1] https://www.umc.org/en/content/what-did-john-wesley-mean-by-moving-on-to-perfection

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