Striving for Perfection without

Stumbling into Perfectionism

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”
Matthew 5:48

If you receive an A- for a course instead of an A and you

think you failed, then you are probably a perfectionist.

If you assume that your professor thinks less of you because

you did not achieve an A, then you are probably a
perfectionist.

If you think that nothing you attempt to do is ever good

enough to meet either your own or others’ expectations,
then you are probably a perfectionist.

If you tell yourself that unless you achieve perfection in

everything you do, that it is pointless to try and therefore
better to give up and stop trying, then you are probably a
perfectionist.

If after trying a new task for the first time you do not
achieve perfection and you give up trying, then you are
probably a perfectionist.

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If you are obsessed with having an ordered and structured
life without disruptions, then you are probably a
perfectionist.

If you are judgmental of others who fall short of your

standard of perfection, then you are probably a
perfectionist.

If you measure your standing before God by your

performance and you discover that you actually sin and fall
short of perfect performance, then you are probably a
perfectionist.

Many perfectionists who claim to be Christians live with guilt

before God because they look to their behavior instead of to
Christ Jesus as the basis for right standing before God.

When many perfectionists realize they fall short of God’s

glory, rather than look to Christ Jesus they try to avoid guilt
for their real sins by lowering the requirements of God’s
commands so that they can achieve and not feel guilt.

Perfectionism is not merely a psychological problem. In fact,

perfectionism is fundamentally a spiritual problem because
if we would know ourselves rightly we must know God rightly.
Therefore, the remedy for perfectionism is not essentially

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psychological but spiritual. This is not to suggest that
psychological counseling cannot help alleviate the symptoms
of perfectionism. I am saying, however, that by itself it
leaves untouched the root of the problem, which is the sin of
self-centeredness that fails to look to Christ Jesus alone
for one’s true and proper identity before God and before
others.

God’s Word addresses the problem of perfectionism in a

much fuller way than human psychology can address the
issue. God’s Word addresses the whole person–how we should
relate to the world around us but also our relation with God.

My objective is rather simple. I want to remind you of the

Apostle Paul’s perspective from a passage that I think most
of you know.

Philippians 3:2-16
New English Translation

If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in

human credentials, I have more: I was circumcised on the
eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law
as a Pharisee. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church.
According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was

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blameless. But these assets I have come to regard as
liabilities because of Christ.

1. Because our pedigrees do not measure up before God

measuring up to our pedigrees will not set us right
with God.

Our preoccupation with thinking that we can and must in

this present life achieve perfection usually comes to us
from our pedigree. Regrettably, unless our concept of
God does not get corrected early by God’s self-
revelation in Scripture, those around us will shape our
view of God and how we should relate to him. Parental
expectations, sibling rivalry, teachers’ demands,
society’s ideals will all put the squeeze on us to measure
up.

Strange as it may seem, though we Christians claim to

have the gospel of Jesus Christ, many things in our
evangelical pedigree have conspired against us to turn us
into perfectionists.

Christian biographies that have portrayed

missionaries especially as believers who never had
any shortcomings or failures.

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A long tradition of devotional literature that
advocates various forms of perfectionism called
the “deeper life,” the “abundant life,” the “higher
life,” the “life of unbroken fellowship with God,”
the “life on the higher plain,” the “Spirit-filled
life.”

Camps and Bible conferences routinely elevate

Christians to spiritual elation for a week or two by
giving us a false sense of reality, removed from the
ordinary demands of daily living. A week or so after
returning home the realities of life accumulate and
the emotional high collapses, and for many, despair
sets in.

Though unintentional, our Christian colleges and

universities have also contributed to the problem.
Living in close quarters with other Christians
incites many to measure their own spirituality by
what they observe in others–the frequency of their
reading the Bible in full view of others, the
intensity of their praying in small groups, the depth
of their knowledge of Scripture, the ease with
which they speak to others of God’s Word, the
pious devotion of their demeanor in everything they
do, the sense you receive from others that they

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 never even sin.

All these and many more conspire against us to induce us

toward perfectionism, the notion that we are able to
achieve perfection by measuring up to our pedigree.

This is a tragic error. Listen to the Apostle Paul’s

assessment of his own pedigree.

More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities

compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I might gain
Christ, and be found in him, not because of having my own
righteousness derived from the law, but because of having
the righteousness that comes by way of Christ's
faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based
on Christ's faithfulness.

2. Because any hope of being set right with God cannot

be found within us or within our pedigree but only in
the righteousness God provides, we must be found in
Christ Jesus if we are to be found righteous before
God.

One of the major errors of every form of perfectionism

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is that every perfectionist adjusts the standard of
perfection downward so that they have some reasonable
hope of achieving perfection. This is what the Pharisees
did. Jesus tells them, “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mind and dill and
cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the
law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought
to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matt
23:23).

Perfectionists measure their attempts to achieve

perfection by false standards. Their standards are
human and not God’s.

Take note of Paul’s fixation. He knows that he will stand

before the God’s judgment bar. He knows that were he
to stand before God on his own, he would stand naked
and ashamed and condemned. His only hope of salvation
is to be “found in Christ.” To be “found in Christ” is to
“found not guilty” but to receive God’s verdict of
“justification, righteousness.”

Paul is modeling for us the posture that we must take if

we desire to have God’s justifying favor rest upon us,
whether now or in the Day of Judgment. There is never
a time in our Christian lives that we can regard any of

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 our achievements to be a basis for commendation
before God. Christ alone is our hope of being found
righteous before God.

It may seem remarkable that Paul continues to unpack

his quest to “be found in Christ” in the Day of Judgment
as he does in the subsequent verses, because here he
speaks of his untiring pursuit of Christ as the prize that
he seeks to win as he finds no satisfaction in present or
in past attainments.

Paul blasts any hope of grounding our righteous standing

before God in our pedigrees or in our own achievements.
Yet, Paul refuses any of us to suppose that we can relax
and take a leisurely walk through life as if being “found
in Christ” in the Day of Judgment that has not yet
arrived excuses us from diligent pursuit of Christ in the
time God gives to us now.

My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his

resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in
his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection
from the dead. Not that I have already attained this—that
is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay
hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have

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attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the
things that are behind and reaching out for the things that
are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize
of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let
those of us who are "perfect" embrace this point of view. If
you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your
ways. Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we
have already attained.

3. Because being set right with God is accomplished by

Christ’s faithfulness and not our own, it is both folly
and sin to think that we either have attained
perfection or can attain perfection now since the Day
of Resurrection has not yet come, but it is also
sinful to suppose that we should therefore not quest
for perfection that lies beyond our present grasp.

The biblical remedy for perfectionism is that we

must acknowledge openly and plainly that we have not
yet achieved perfection nor that we can expect to
achieve perfection in the present age but only in the
age to come, when sin will no longer corrupt our
deeds and tarnish all that we do.

The biblical remedy for perfectionism is not to lower

the goal. Perfection is to be our goal. What kind of

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perfection? Full conformity to the person of Jesus
Christ. It was Paul’s.
Paul expresses it this way: “My aim is to know him, to
experience the power of his resurrection, to share in
his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so,
somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Elsewhere Paul prays for the Ephesian believers: “I pray

. . . that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may
have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is
the breadth and length and height and depth and to
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that
you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:17-
19).

This is a remarkable prayer, for it is a prayer that we

may comprehend what is far beyond our comprehension.
To know Christ Jesus, to know the love of Christ is to
pursue perfection, perfection that is unattainable in
this present life.

Paul admits this. “Not that I have already attained

this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I
strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also
laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider

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myself to have attained this.” Nevertheless, this is no
reason to end the quest. Instead, Paul says, “Instead I
am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind
and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with
this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Do athletes stop perfecting their skills because they

cannot achieve perfection?

Do pianists give up practicing their drills because they

cannot attain perfect performance?

Do writers cease composing prose or poetry because

they cannot draft the perfect lines?

Friends, Paul is modeling for us how we need to pursue

perfection without stumbling into perfectionism.

Perfectionists either adjust perfection downward so

that they can achieve it, or they abandon their quest
for perfection. Neither is acceptable. The biblical
remedy for perfectionism is not difficult, if you will
hear what the Apostle Paul is telling us.

• Our pedigrees and achievements both fall short of

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 perfection that counts with God.
• Perfection that counts with God is to be found in
Christ Jesus alone. Being “found in Christ” alone will
set us right with God both now and in the Day of
Judgment.
• Perfection lies beyond our grasp in this present
life, but this is no proper reason to abandon our
quest for perfection. Indeed, it is the God-given
motivation to pursue perfection without stumbling
into perfectionism.

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