Wrestling with Perfection, IV
Posted on December 3, 2007
Filed Under Personal, Worldview |
As is often the case in any issue, definitions are critical. So too, here. Our task is to make sure that when we read “perfect” in our English translations, our understanding is as closely aligned with the original meaning as possible.
But, when you look at the original Greek there are a number of words that end up being translated into some form of the English word “perfect”: teleios, teleioteros, artios, teleioo, epiteleo, katartizo, akribos, akribesteron, katartisis, katartismos, teleiosis, teleiotes, and telesphoreo. This obviously presents us with a challenge.
The NIV, for example, translates 2 Corinthians 13:11 as “Aim for perfection”. The Greek word here is katartizo. However, that is the exact same word the NIV translates as “preparing” in Matthew 4:21 where Jesus found James and John “preparing their nets.” The ESV and NAS translate it “mending” their nets. In the Matthew 5:48 passage where Jesus calls us to be “perfect”, the Greek word is teleios. However, it is this same word the NIV, NAS and ESV translate as “mature” in 1 Corinthians 2:6, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature…”.
Now, unfortunately, when we read the English word “perfect” or “perfection” we may have in mind something entirely different than this. We may think that “perfection” means “precisely exact” or “purely pure” or some other sense of absolutely without flaw. If so, then I believe we will misunderstand what God is saying to us in the vast majority of these passages. Look at the Greek word “katartizo” translated “perfection” in 2 Corinthians 13:11 (“Aim for perfection”, NIV). Vine defines that word as “to render fit”. That means to “make functional”. James and John were making their nets “functional” so that they might be able to catch fish. That doesn’t mean they were making them “precisely exact”. I doubt that every knot was “precise” or “exact”. No one can really define a knot that is “precisely exact”. When I tie my shoe, I want to make it “functional”. When I do, it is “perfect” from this translation perspective. I can tie my shoe, smile and say “perfect” and go on about my business.
Now, if someone comes along and looks at my shoe laces and says, those shoes laces are not tied with “exactly precise” loops, then I can smile at them and say, “No, you’re right. They are merely perfect”.
Look at how this can make a difference in our understanding of the Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 1:10, we read the following from the NIV:
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
Now, if we think that we are to be united “precisely and exactly” in mind and thought, then it won’t ever happen and we will find ourselves judging and complaining about those who don’t agree with me in every jot and tittle. But if we understand this from the standpoint of “functionally” united in mind and thought, now we have a better picture of what God is calling us to.
Here is the point and my conclusion, having now read and studied all of the passages that are translated using some form of “perfect”:
In the realm of salvation and our relationship with God, the standard is pure holiness. Many of the “perfect” passages deal with this. We can’t achieve that, so God did so and does so for us. That is the glory of the Gospel. In the realm of human actions, we are called to act righteously and not sin. But those righteous actions do not carry a standard of “precise exactness”. If I am supposed to be kind to my neighbor, what “precisely” and “exactly” does that mean? Do I begin my conversation with “Good morning, Miss Quigley” or “Hello, Miss Quigley” or “Hi! What’s up?” Scripture doesn’t burden us with “precise exactness” in these things. So, in the social realm, I have Scriptural guidance to be “perfect” in kindness, gentleness, love, respect, etc., but without slavery to some sense of “this is exactly how you should do this or you will be imperfect”. That kind of thinking is more like the Pharisees and the experts in the law, to whom Jesus said in Luke 11:46: “…woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry…”.
Additionally, last time we dealt with the fact that the vast majority of our human actions are “adiaphorous”…ethically neutral. You have freedom to put your left shoe on first or wear the blue shirt. In Genesis 17:1, when God said to Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect, that meant he was to be morally righteous, not “swing your arms this high” or “make your steps exactly this long and no more or no less”.
Now, in the physical realm, where we are dealing with a creation that is “decaying”, we recognize that few things, if any, can be done with “precise exactness” or “purely pure” or “absolutely without flaw”. Here we come back to the notion of “functional” perfection (katartizo) and my original problem, cleaning gutters. (Do you remember back that far!) If I think that my standard is “precise exactness”, I will never achieve it. But if I think my standard is to “make functional”, then I not only have something that I can achieve, but I have a righteous goal. If I blow it off and don’t clean my gutters, then the water may compromise the foundation and my house will collapse, or water will back up under the shingles and damage the inside of my home or rot the roof. The Scriptures hint at this when they talk of the lazy man:
I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. Prov 24:30-31
But if I pursue the righteous goal of “making functional” then I can remove the majority of the pine needles and smile and say “perfect”. If there are places where the sludge in the bottom of the gutters will prevent the water from flowing, then I should remove that as well, but it doesn’t have to be “spic and span” clean to be “functionally” perfect.
Now, one more note that we will need to pursue on some future date. That has to do with this: who sets the standards for “functionally” perfect? If you are working for someone else and they hire you to wash windows, then they set the standard. You may want to wash one window and ask them to inspect it. Does it meet their standard for “perfect”? If not, then find out what that is. If you cannot meet that standard, then you will need to make a brief appeal or find another job.
Often, however, the standard is our own. The person who suffers from obsessive compulsions is often trying to achieve a standard of “precise exactness” that they believe is required of them. Someone wrote in about their wife who has to get the patterns in the dishes to line up exactly as she puts them away. That is a standard that she has created. But I believe we would be wrong in thinking that God requires this kind of exactness.
Sometimes we require of ourselves and others what God does not. That usually leads to pain and/or disfunction.
Well, there are other issues here as well. Issues of “excellence” and “beauty” and doing our work “as unto the Lord”, etc. that call us to create things with excellence and with God’s glory in mind. Nothing said here should give us license to do sloppy work. God’s people should be known for their excellent craftsmanship. This also raises the another issue of “order” and “disorder”. Maybe we will get to those someday. However, for now, there are several comments that were submitted on this topic to which I want and need to respond. I will get to them next.
Thank you for bearing with me in this extremely important subject. If you have read any of the comments, you have noticed that this is not a minor issue. For some, it is a major factor in their lives or the live of others. For me, it has been delightful and of personal benefit.
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18 Responses to “Wrestling with Perfection, IV”
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Dr. Del Tackett is president of the Focus on the Family Institute and Senior Vice President to Focus on the Family. He is also the architect and chief spokesperson for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project--a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
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Del,
I have wondered lately whether perfection/righteousness/love aren’t a function of time, not a state of being or a characteristic. What I mean is, I wonder whether the Bible isn’t referring to actions that approximate the will of God’s heart (the only one who is good) more fully, instead of referring to a project or a person or any of those static things being closer to a non-existent and often subjective ideal. I think if we look at Christ’s example, we see one who took on a flesh that was lower than the heavenly beings (a characteristic) but lived perfectly through it (an action in time). So when you’re talking to Mrs. Quigley, what matters is not the legalistic perfectionism (as you note) or really anything about the actual act beyond the motivations of your heart (for love is expressed so very differently between any two people), but whether you greet her the next day and the next, and so gain a closer love and knowledge of Mrs. Quigley and allow the Spirit to work. The characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13 seem to be very inward and nonspecific as to their outward manifestations, as are the fruits of the spirit. It seems to me that faithfulness in our attempts at love is the only real method for achieving perfection, for it is achieved only through the Spirit’s refinement of an active heart.
Just an idle thought.
Your brother in Christ,
Jacob Thielman
Hi Del,
I have been watching and waiting for your reply to the first gutter story on perfectionism, only to find out I was not looking in the right place; that you’ve written 3 more articles on this subject! I’m enjoying them all and looking forward to the more you have to say on the subject! I do like some of your observations!
God Bless!
Del, we have been going through the many tours in a special class at church. We just finished up lesson 10 the American Experiment. I had a thought, wouldn’t it be something if President Bush would give a farewell speech on nation wide television using all the networks so all could see and listen showing the lesson or clips from the American Experiment. This would be one of the greatest contributions he could ever make to the American public. I’m sure like many others awareness to the facts has been hidden from this generation. When you think about it what does he have to lose, if anything his ratings would more than likely improve. Just some of my thoughts.
Great Job on that lesson!
Wayne Thompson,
Elder, Foothills Christian Church
Del, this is my first time to sit and take the time to read your blog. This is all new to me, so bear with me. I have read through them all including the fourth blog and have been enriched by them all. I like the functionality idea, but yet I feel personally that I should always do my best at whatever I do for this has an impact on what others see in me. But, there again I sometimes fail and herein lies God’s Grace, through Christ.
So maybe we should be like David’s 400 misfits that continued to strive to do their best and became mighty warriors for the Kingdom. Always trying to function at our best.
Every year I hope to look back at the last and and see that I have improved somewhat in being that good and faithful sevant.
I also want to say how much the Truth Project has benefited our church as well as my own personal life. May God continue to bless you and all of those with Focus on the family that work so diligently for us.
Ron Hardt
Dr. Tackett
I am so pleased with what I have read thus far and look forward to the remaining comments on this topic. Through my personal struggle with perfection and my study of God’s Word I feel that this is an extension of the fact that God looks at the heart. Regardless of the various individual standards of perfect, the root is the motivation or driving force behind the desire to do or be. Our desire should be to be pleasing in our Lord’s sight, not man’s.
Del,
These translations of the Bible, when you break down the Greek into today’s English, leave me disturbed. To think that I am missing God’s Word because I’m not reading the pure message, but the improperly filtered message, distresses my soul.
I enjoy reading Proverbs, and I can only imagine how mangled those passages are! I enjoy the Truth Project, but have found today’s churches lacking, disqualifying myself. I make it a point to absorb everything I can from your site. Thank you for your service.
PK
This seems to be exactly what God has challenged me with at the moment. Something about having 2 kids helps, too… He continues to challenge me to let go, and lower some of those expectations of myself and others.
Del,
I just discovered your article on “Perfection” today. It’s marvelous. I will be going back to pick-up on the previously written articles on the topic (I need to find out about that cleaning the gutter thing). I’m absolutely looking forward to the challenge I will undoubtedly experience as I go through the series. Thank you for sharing your gift of insight with us.
bill c.
Del,
The concept of making something useful is really helpful. A group of us at my church are working diligently to put together a faith-based not-for-profit social service agency to fill in gaps in services that county agencies are unable to meet. Our goal is to increase capacity, with services that are provided in a Christ-like manner. None of us being “experts”, we have had to educate ourselves, work patiently to put together the prototype for a board and identify all the steps necessary to become a viable agency. We could easily get discouraged but the goal of our “high calling” in Jesus continually motivates us. “Perfection” looks like a long way off, but we’re already functioning in ways that benefit the less fortunate. As we build an agency, our effectiveness should improve, more families and individuals will be impacted, our skill at this will grow, we should be able to attract additonal resources and form viable partnerships. But of supreme importance, the church will be perceived by the wider community as providing practical, in the trenches help, and Jesus will be glorified. There are very practical considerations to this issue: motivation, discipline, openness, intentionality, attention to the environment we find ourselves in. If we and our ministries are “perfect”, there will be tangible results and we and others will reap a harvest. This series has been very encouraging! And unlike so many sites in the blogosphere, it’s suffused with graciousness. Thanks
In His Love,
Tom Remein
I think we may find that “perfect” has something profoundly to do with acting according to our nature. For example, God is perfect because he acts perfectly in accord with his nature of omniscience,omnipotence,all loving,all merciful,etc.. If He were somehow to act deceitful, He would not be acting according to his nature and would thus be “imperfect”.
At the opposite extreme, a hunting dog for example, who coudn’t smell, or track and who insisted on walking on two legs backwards, would be marked by its owner as defective and imperfect.In other words, it would not be acting in accord with its animal nature. Likewise, Jesus tells us that the fig tree that doesn’t produce fruit as it was meant by its nature to do, will be cursed.
As for man, it is our duty to act according to OUR nature, and our nature has been modeled for us by Christ. Christ reveals man to himself. To be perfect then is to act as Jesus did, with his same heart and will. If we do all things with and for the love of God, though they be clumsy or inconsequential to the world, we will please our Father in heaven. (This is why St. Theresa said that the mere act of picking up a stray pin off the floor if done for true love of God pleases God more than any charitable works done without thought of Him.)
When all of creation acts in complete harmony with its nature, God is glorified.
How functionally perfect do we have to be to live in such a way that the unbeliever sees the reality of Christ in us? Perhaps a functional perfection is something akin to a consistent life of righteous action. After all, God sees my heart and understands where I am in relationship to Him. He knows if I am well intentioned concerning my walk and my actions toward my unsaved neighbor. The key is to live in such a way that my unsaved neighbor knows that I love him. This would seem to be the kind of perfection that leads to the perfect outcome - that someone would see Christ in me.
Del,
A definition of holiness/perfection that I heard and have adopted is “the ability to perform the service for which the object was created.” When the object is man holiness is performing the service for which the man was created. I believe this definition is very close to your “functional perfection.”
I love your style!
Dr. Tackett you certainly do have a way with words. Your explanations of these difficult topics make them simple to understand. Also I find it much easier to apply them to my own life. This series on perfection has been very helpful for me as far as how I view my self and my outward appearance. I cant wait to read your future entries. God Bless.
All,
There is so much richness in this subject matter that it is very hard to know where to start. While I don’t completely agree with all of the earlier posts in this installment; most seem compatible with my understanding of the Gospel. There is one thing nagging me though, and I’d like to share it here if I may…
If there’s anything that can be said about Dr. Tackett’s treatise(s) on “Wrestling with Perfection” and in fact, all of his Truth Observed Weblog (Blog) content, is that, it is very well thought out, and presented in a very relaxed, heartfelt, and loving manner. In fact, I’ve never detected anything from Dr. Tackett that was in anyway un-Christ-like. His way with words (and the Truth) is “close enough to perfect” that his manner and methods should be admired and emulated by many of us. Now please don’t misunderstand me. While we find a good and faithful example in our Dr. Tackett as he shares his knowledge and teaches us about the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus; our real focus should always be exclusively on the only true example of perfection, which is Christ Jesus. Dr. Tackett doesn’t say “look at me…” when looking for an example of what being Christ-like really means! He does as the first apostles did and directs our eyes and our hearts to Christ, the ultimate exemplar of love perfected.
It’s getting late, but eventually I would like to talk about the process of perfection and the state of perfection, and why I am motivated to try to be as Christ-like as possible!
Thanks to you all for sharing and putting up with my rambling. And a very special “thank you” to you Dr. Tackett! I really enjoy your blog!!!
Brother Del,
I too struggle and wrestle with perfection. I thank you for your insights into the meaning of the word perfect, and your reminder that it is God who has imparted righteousness to us through faith in Christ’s atoning death for our unrighteousness. Glory to God! It is always a great burden-lifter, and praise God that I’m not trying to be perfect to obtain righteousness!
However, I can’t deny that having been born again in Christ, the desire to be perfect seems stronger! Am I normal? Is there something wrong with me? Is this God willing in me the working out of my salvation? Where does it stem from?
I believe the Lord has revealed to me a part of that answer.
When you truly come to know and LOVE your father, you want to be like him. You want to take on his characteristics. You want to PLEASE Him, and know that He is pleased(Ph 4:18,Col 1:10,1 Jn 3:22). You want to run that race, and meet your Lord at the end and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the Joy of the Lord!” It’s not righteousness that motivates me, but my love for Him and His good pleasure.
Again, all wrapped up in the two greatest commandments, to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to Love your neighbor as yourself.
Dear Brother Jack,
What child doesn’t want to please his beloved parent? Who loves more truly, more purely, and without limit than a child loving a parent?
And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:3 NIV)
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Mt 19:14 NIV)
Through Christ, may we humbly honor and praise Him, and be faithful children of God!
Dan…
My husband and I once set out to write a book about the inadequacy of language. But - we could never really get it off the ground. After stuying the Truth Project and pondering then for many months, we now know why. Language was created by God - it is, therefore, perfect as he is perfect. It is the user (mankind) that is imperfect! It makes very important 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20-21.
This article has been an answer to a prayer. For year I been deling with perfection in front of God,not able to meet my own standars. Thank you for taking you time and explaining this to me. I will share this information with a love one that I belive is in need. The glory be to God.