Perfection

Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.
Matthew 5:48

I just spent some time away at Pastor’s Convocation. This year’s focus was on John Wesley’s somewhat confusing and paradoxical doctrine of Christian Perfection. It seems that over time this doctrine has been misinterpreted and almost abandoned. Yet, every candidate for Ordination as a Pastor in the United Methodist Church has to answer no less than four questions regarding this concept. It may be helpful to think of it more as maturity rather than perfection. Perfection has a connotation of something we do, where maturity is more something God does. But unlike physical maturity that happens no matter what, Christian Perfection does require some participation on our part. The Spiritual Disciplines of prayer, reading Scripture, study, worship, sacrament, and accountability all come into play in our developing the spiritual side of our selves. You could say that full Christian Perfection (or maturity) is when we allow ourselves to be completely filled with God’s love in such a way that it informs and influences all that we do.

Let us actively seek God so that God can fill us. I challenge us all to work on our spiritual maturity, together. As Bishop Cho used to encourage us to pray, “Less of me, more of you.” There is no greater goal in life than to constantly and consistently become more who God wants us each to be. This is a journey worth traveling. If we want to change the world, the best place to start is within ourselves.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Brian