I started my studies this morning looking for what God expects of us. On LDS.org, I searched for the word 'Perfect', hoping to find a talk or article that said that God doesn't expect us to be perfect or "It's impossible to be perfect in this life, so here's what we should do instead: ..." Unfortunately, what I found was the most difficult commandment ever given to us, "Be ye therefore perfect," and several articles stating that perfection, though a distant goal, should be constantly strived for.
One article, Perfection Pending by Elder Russell M. Nelson, pointed out that the word "Perfect" in the commandment "Be ye therefore perfect" may not mean what we think it means. It was translated from the Greek word Teleios, which means "complete." According to Elder Nelson, Teleios is the source of the prefix Tele- which we use every day and which involves distance. Elder Nelson goes on to explain that perfection is a distant goal, on that cannot be fully achieved in mortality.
Elder Nelson also points out that Jesus said "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," during His mortal ministry, but when preaching to the Nephites after His resurrection, He said "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (Emphasis added.) It would seem that the completeness that Jesus commanded us to (eventually) reach includes the state of being resurrected, and thus this Perfection is impossible to gain in mortality.
Yet, Christ gave that commandment to mortals. I think that, even though we can't fully keep that commandment yet, there is something we can do about it, and that's what Christ expects of us.
There's another notable place in the scriptures in which the concept of perfection is used. In this case, the subject is brought up by Moroni, the Nephite prophet. He said "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ;"
Interesting... In copying that scripture down, I noticed that both the word "perfected" as in "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him" and the word "perfect" as in "by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ" have separate footnotes, and those footnotes don't go to the same place. I wonder what that means. Unfortunately, all those footnotes take me to verses from the Pauline Epistles, and I can't wrap my head around them right now.
Overall, the idea of becoming perfect seems to be a long-term goal or a process. The reaching of the goal or completion of the process is impossible in this life, BUT God expects us to begin the process and take steps toward the goal right now, and part of that is, as Moroni said, to come unto Christ and deny ourselves of all ungodliness. Coming unto Christ involves Faith and Humility. Denying ourselves of ungodliness involves Repentance and Self-Mastery.
Self-Mastery itself is a long-term goal, so we shouldn't feel bad if we don't reach it in mortality. We can make progress toward it, and I'm sure we're expected to, but total self-mastery is, if I'm not mistaken, impossible for mortals like us.
Repentance is an ongoing process. As long as we keep making mistakes, we'll keep having things to repent of, and until we achieve total self-mastery and an absolute knowledge of what we should do, we'll continually be making mistakes.
Faith and Humility aren't so much goals or processes as they are qualities that can be had in varying degrees. We can set goals to increase our faith and humility, and increasing our faith and humility is a process, but no matter how much faith and humility we have, I believe we can always have more.
So in conclusion, God has high expectations of us that He wants us to reach eventually. In the meantime, He wants us to get the ball rolling and take steps toward the goals. He knows we won't reach the goals in mortality. We won't even get close. But if we come unto Christ, through faith and repentance (things we actually can do), we can be made perfect in Christ.
As I recall, Stephen E. Robinson wrote some good things about this in his book, Believing Christ. I'll try to find them and report them tomorrow.
2 comments:
This gives me hope. Being so very far from perfect is less of a problem than not striving. If we keep trying, in faith and humility, we are on the right path - even though it is a long one (back to the Ladder of St Augustine, eh).
(This comment kind of turned into an essay!)
I just read your two recent posts. You have a lot of good thoughts and I admire you for working on being a better person. It is so easy for us to get distracted by different things in life. It shows good character to be aware of yourself and make an effort to improve.
I think it's important to have a positive attitude when you think about becoming better. One of the adversary’s best tricks is to discourage good people and make them think they aren’t good enough. Remember that Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. The whole reason we are here on earth is often called the Plan of Happiness. 2 Nephi 2:17 "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
Hmm, that's interesting. I was thinking of the second part of the verse, but reading the whole scripture in context with your posts makes me see a new perspective: We need the mistakes to achieve perfection. No one is instantly perfect--like the poem Mom mentioned, it's step by step. Any learning process starts by trying and making mistakes and through persistence becoming better. I don’t think of it as taking steps forward or backward. You don’t say that a baby is taking a step backward in learning to walk when they fall down. They just need to keep practicing. They fell down, but they are still learning and getting better because they keep trying. I think it’s best to evaluate where you are right now, then pick one specific thing you can do to become better today. Then do it.
Heavenly Father just wants us to keep trying. I don’t think he is as concerned about how far along we are, as much as whether we are heading in the right direction and trying to do our best. 1 Samuel 16:7 “…the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” He knows what we struggle with and the efforts that we make. He knows the desires of our hearts, and that is what matters to him.
Doing our best can be a difficult concept for some people along with the perfection concept: they say things like: you can always do better, more, etc. (as in: I didn’t to enough). I think there’s a more effective and positive way to think about it. If there’s something you are working on, at the end of the day ask yourself how you did. Acknowledge what went well and ask yourself what you would have done differently. Don’t think of it in a negative way, just simply: “I could have done this.” Then pray for help & try that the next day. You don’t have to feel bad about yourself, just identify what you want to change, then choose one small step & do it. If you do that step, congratulate yourself & thank Heavenly Father for helping you, then decide to do the step again or choose another step. If you don’t do the step that you chose, don’t beat yourself up. What would that accomplish? Just ask yourself why you didn’t do it & make a plan to make it happen the next day. Don’t yell at yourself, “Why didn’t I do it?!” Seriously consider what things prevented or distracted you from doing it. Then make a plan to avoid or overcome those things.
Each person on earth is capable of returning to our Heavenly Father. He wouldn’t be a just God if he set us up for failure. Articles of Faith 1:13 “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” (emphasis added)
I remember getting a sticker in church that says, “The Celestial Kingdom is a Choice.” This gives me hope, because it’s not an abstract concept: “Am I good enough?” “Will I go to heaven?” It clarified for me that I can follow God’s plan by making good choices. As long as I am trying to live the gospel, I can return to Heavenly Father. Through the atonement, my sincere efforts will be sufficient.
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