Matthew 5:48 tells us: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
What does this verse mean? It tells us to “be perfect” and yet we know only God is perfect.
When we look deeper into the meaning behind the word Paul used here, “perfect”, in Greek the word is “teleios”, which means to reach a goal, be complete, whole or fully mature and that in this context, it is a call to completeness in our faith and love rather than absolute sinlessness which we know is unattainable.
Romans 3:23: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We strive for perfection because it makes us feel better about ourselves. This command moves the goal post from feeling better about ourselves, or thinking too highly of ourselves to thinking rightly about who God is and what He has done for us.
Romans 12:3 For by grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Our ultimate objective is to look to Jesus, the only One who has lived a perfect life and because of Jesus, we are declared righteous and therefore our thoughts, motives and actions are to align with God’s ways and standards exhibiting God’s righteousness and holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Complete in our faith and love is our goal to strive for not perfection.
Your Coaching Moment:
Build awareness around your beliefs on needing to be perfect:
- What does perfection mean to you?
- What expectations are you holding yourself to?
- Where do those expectations come from?
- What are they costing you?
Build awareness around your fears of perfectionism:
- What’s the worst-case scenario if things aren’t perfect?
- How might this fear be limiting you today?
- What does your fear want you to believe?
- What would freedom from this fear make possible in your life?
Build awareness around your assumptions of perfectionism:
- What assumptions are you making about this situation?
- If your assumption were true, what feels most concerning?
- What else could be true?
- What small step could help you test your assumption?