I tend to be a perfectionist. Because of this, I can be a burden both to myself and those around me. In a world where everything, and everyone, is imperfect, such people as me can spend their lives in misery unless they learn to adjust.
No one in the Bible claimed to be perfect. In the Old Testament, Job says, “...if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.” Paul tells us in the New Testament, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect...” If one could be perfect, that would do away with the doctrine of progressive sanctification, while ridiculously stating, by its claim, that you no longer need the blood of Christ in your daily life.
Though they would never say so publicly, this is where much of the so-called “deeper life” teaching leads one. Be careful of such teachings. Remember the first person in the Bible that promised that if you followed his teaching, “ye shall be as gods.”
When the Bible speaks of a Christian being perfect it simply means at a particular stage in your spiritual growth. For example, a husband may make a table for his wife, and seeing it in its early stage, she might say, “its perfect!” But she also says this after the sanding process, the staining, and then, finally, when the finishing touches are put on it. That is how the Scripture can use the term, “more perfect,” and be correct. How can perfect be more perfect except it be at different stages and time intervals?
David said, “I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad…” Christ is the only, truly Perfect One, and yet He gives each of us an “exceeding broad” space to move about in. God help us to do the same with our family and friends.
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