Perfection is a dominant ideal in popular culture. We're constantly targeted with adverts on how to get the perfect smile, editorials on how to get the perfect job, TV programmes on how to create the perfect home and magazine articles on how to take the perfect selfie (this may be further down your list of priorities than the others). But the problem with this unrelenting pursuit of perfection is that it can make us feel inadequate when we fall short of the mark, and because perfection in all areas of our lives is impossible to achieve, this feeling of inadequacy is more common than we'd like to think.
The belief that Christians are perfect is one of the common misconceptions held about followers of Christ. Associating Christianity with perfection in this way is misguided and has a negative impact on non-believers' perception of the faith - those who feel less than perfect won't believe Christianity is open to them if they think it's for perfect people - and it can cause serious problems for Christians who mistakenly believe that they need to be perfect. To be perfect is to be without fault, to be flawless. If there's one thing that we can all agree on as Christians, it's that we aren't without fault. Grace is at the centre of our faith and it's in spite of our faults that we received it.
So if God knows that we're not perfect and that we'll never be, should we stop aiming for perfection? In 2 Corinthians 13:11 (NIV), Paul writes, "strive for full restoration". In some versions this is translated to: "strive for perfection". At first glance it can seem as though we should be perfect, but striving for perfection and actually achieving it are two different things. John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach, once said: "Perfection is what you're striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility." His quote can help us understand how we can live out the directions of 2 Corinthians 13:11. In the same way that we strive to be more Christ-like, while knowing we will never be as good as Christ, so we can strive for perfection, even though we know that it is unattainable. By accepting Christ into our lives and following his example, we'll be the closest to perfect as we can be. The pursuit for perfection in the context of Christianity isn't about independently pushing ourselves to self improve but accepting that we can be improved through Christ.
The problem with the pursuit of perfection doesn't lie with trying hard and making an effort to produce something or to become someone that you can be proud of. But issues arise when we equate perfection with goodness. We can still be good, do good and achieve good things without being perfect.
There's beauty in imperfection and God loves us warts and all. His decision to give his one and only son so that we could be saved despite our imperfections shows us that. Just because we know that we'll never be perfect, doesn't mean that we give up trying to improve with God's help.
