As long as I can remember, I have wanted to make the right decisions. I believed from an early point in my life that trust is hard to build and that one mistake, even a little one, can ruin everything. Thus, I was constantly fearful of making a decision that could ruin my life.

While I was opening my heart to the Lord with all sincerity on this matter, He gently revealed to me, “Cami, my daughter, that’s perfectionism.”

I remember answering Him in my prayer: “No, Lord. How can it be? I am not a super rigid person; I am flexible to adjust to change; if things are not done my way, I look forward to adjusting to a new way. If a person makes a mistake and apologizes, I forgive and try to work out a solution to succeed in our project or task. Plus, people never described me as a perfectionist. How is that possible?”

Then, He gently asked me, in my heart, “Is there room for mistakes in your life?”

To this, my honest answer was “Not really.” For the longest time, it seemed okay for me to accept another person’s mistakes. Yet if I were the one who had made the mistake, it was not okay. People did not expect me to err, and neither did I. The Lord was working to remove the lie of perfectionism from my heart.

During the week that I was having this conversation with the Lord, I talked to one of my mentors. She asked me, “Are you willing to let perfectionism go?” And I remember saying “no.” Even though I had not realized it, this idea had been my security—even in my walk with God. My perfectionism was quiet, unseen, and even passive; unknown to me and to others but not to God.

I felt really sad about my response. I knew I had to let it go. Yet I felt that I could not.

As I continued spending time with the Lord and asked Him to remove all perfectionism from my heart, I specifically remember the day He helped me to let it go.

I was playing racquetball by myself. As I played, I was praying. I remember asking, “Lord, can you help me to move away from my own perfectionism and toward your perfection?” While I continued playing and praying, I was standing on the left side of the court when I felt the Lord say to me in my heart, “Move to the right side, my perfection. On your perfectionism, you will fall; but on mine, you will not. I am your sustainer.”

I remember stopping in that moment and physically moving myself to the right side of the court as a symbol of the inward shift God was doing—a God-given object lesson for my perfectionistic heart. I felt grateful and thanked Him, but I still had a question: “What does it mean to stand on Your perfection?”

In response to that question, the Lord has taught me three things from Scripture about standing on Christ’s perfection: (1) Christ has made us perfect before God; (2) Christ uses Scripture to sanctify us; (3) Christ makes us perfect to do good works. In this blog, I will focus on the first truth.

The key passage that reveals these truths is Matthew 5:43–48. This passage is part of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and is focused on loving our enemies:

You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor” and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus is commanding us to be perfect, as our Father is perfect. Is this even possible for us who are but dust (Psalm 103:14–16)? Well, if Jesus says it, yes! But just as Jesus began by correcting the wrong cultural teaching about loving the neighbors and hating the enemies (Matthew 5:43), it may be that our cultural teaching of perfectionism needs to be corrected by Him through His Word.

Today, our world uses the word “perfectionism” to refer to “a striving for flawlessness, having unrealistic standards, and experiencing intense external and internal pressures to be perfect.”¹ It is based upon one’s own performance, ability, and strength. Even though it is an unrealistic expectation and unattainable, perfectionism is and continues to rapidly increase to the point that it has become a “hidden epidemic.”² This is a result of a culture that is exponentially placing great pressure on achievement, individualism, and unrealistic images of “perfect lives” displayed on social media.

The motivation and ultimate goal of this perfection is pride—a deep desire to be praised inwardly by the self and outwardly by others, especially one’s parents, teachers, employers, friends, and even strangers. This kind of perfectionism reflects our fallen nature that has the self as the end and the center of all.

Opposite to this fallen nature, Christ, who is perfect (Hebrews 4:15), presents us with the right definition, practice, and perspective on perfection that we should have. Returning to Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that by loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, we are acting as true children of God (Matthew 5:45). These two actions do not make us God’s children. Instead, these actions are reflections of our already secure identity as God’s children.

Scripture tells us that we become children of God by receiving Christ as God’s Son, who was truly God, died on the cross for our sins and rose again (John 1:12–13, Acts 16:30–31, 1 Corinthians 15:3). By dying for our sins on the cross, Scripture tells us that Jesus “has perfected forever those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Through Christ’s sacrifice, perfection has already been fulfilled in Christ for those who have believed in Him, and sanctification is something that continues.

Perfection doesn’t come from our performance but from what Christ performed perfectly in His death and resurrection. Thus, we don’t do things for God to accept us, but we do them out of being accepted by Him. Because of Jesus, God accepts us once and for all—even if we don’t pray, read the Bible, or make the right decisions.

Should we therefore stop doing all those things and choose sin instead because God has already accepted us? As the Bible says: “By no means!” (Romans 6:2, ESV). Because we are accepted by God, God has given us a new heart and put a new spirit in us (Ezekiel 36:26). This is God the Holy Spirit, who lives within us and assures us that we are God’s children—He has adopted us (Romans 8:16). Because of the Holy Spirit, we can trust God completely, reject sin, and accept God’s forgiveness when we sin. Thus, we start living in freedom—inwardly and outwardly.

Christ has made you perfect before God. You are accepted.

Notes:

1. Martin M. Smith, Simon B Sherry, Vanja Vidovic, Donald H Saklofske, Joachim Stoeber, and Aryn Benoit. “Perfectionism and the Five-Factor Model of Personality: A Meta-Analytic Review.” Personality and Social Psychology Review. 23, no. 4 (November 2019): 367–90. doi:10.1177/1088868318814973.

2. Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill, “The Hidden Epidemic of Perfectionism in Millennials,” CBS News, last edited, January 4, 2018, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-hidden-epidemic-of-perfectionism-in-millennials/.

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Author Bio

Camila A. Roldan Hernandez is pursuing a PhD in Theological Studies at Liberty Theological Seminary. Her research focuses on human flourishing through the gospel of Christ. She enjoys prayer, sharing the gospel, fellowship, exercise, traveling, and nature.

Additional Resources:

Worthy | Identity Bible Study		Chosen | A Study on the Book of Ephesians | Digital Bible Study		Free From Shame Bible Study - Men
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