These bitter words erupted from the lips of a young husband whom the pastor had recently let to Christ. Gloriously forgiven and emancipated from his old life as a sinner, he was now struggling to realize his new life in Christ.
What was his problem? As his pastor knew, and he came later to see, the Christ-centered faith that had brought him forgiveness and new life had been followed unconsciously by self-effort.
When it comes to putting our live together and finding the wholeness God will for us, our human best proves to be at odds with God's holy best. To grit our teeth and clench our fists in an effort to be perfect before God is, by that very act, not to let God perfect us in His love. Perfectionism is not perfect love; it is the nemesis to it.
A careful reading of the New Testament makes clear that Christianholiness is not the perfection of our love for God, but the perfecting of His love in us. This process includes the following steps:
It issues in the purifying of our hearts as we yield fully to God and are filled with the Spirit (being perfected in love).
The process continues, until death, as we permit God to discipline and mature us in the likeness of His Son.
The apostle John writes: "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit....God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him" (1 John 4:11-13, 16b-17).
If God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, and God is love, then love dwells within us, testifying to the fact that we are in God. Christian perfection (or spiritual wholeness) is God's love manifesting itself in our lives and completing His purpose for us. And for John this purpose is that we love one another, "because in this world we are like Him" (italics added).
Like whom? John means like Christ. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says we are like God. Since Christ is the image of God (2 Cor 4:4), John and Jesus are really saying the same thing. Just as God the Father loves all persons unconditionally—His enemies as well as His friends, the evil as well as the good—so do we, if we love others with his unconditional love. To love in this manner is to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:43-48).
We are called to demonstrate God's perfect love in this world—the Father's all-inclusive agape love. And how do we get this love? "God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us," says Paul (Romans 5:1-5). This active love, energized by the Holy Spirit, completes the state of grace into which we were introduced by faith in Christ. The greatest commandment—love for God, and neighbor and self (Matt 22:37-40)— are now fulfilled in us by the Spirit of God who dwells within us (Romans 7:6, 8:1-17).
Perfect love is not an emotional feeling! Perfect love is God's active good will operative within us, enabling us to forgive and pray for those who mistreat us (Matt 5:44).
Growth in grace and holiness involves the sanctification of our action and reactions in the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:12-13). Christian perfection is not perfect performance; it is love being perfected in us by the Holy Spirit who lives within our hearts. Since we are not yet finally perfected, even the saintliest among us must pray, as Christ taught us, "Forgive us our sins....and lead us not into temptation" (Luke 11:14).
Finally, we must consider Philippians 3, where Paul confesses, "Not that I have....already been make perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which ChristJesus took hold of me" (Phil 3:12). Paul is speaking here of the final perfection that will be his only at Christ's return (Phil 3:20-21). This final perfection must not be mistaken for the perfection of love described above.
Those being perfected in love go on and say with Paul, despite his disclaimer, "But on thing I do....I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in ChristJesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things" (Phil 3:13-15). Being perfected in love means to live with singleness of intention that carries us forward to our goal, which is our final destiny in ChristJesus.
There is a single purpose to be fulfilled in your life and mine now, in order that God's final purpose may be fulfilled/perfected then. "'Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3).
