Garden of the LORD

Garden of the LORD

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Exploring Perfection

“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.  To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy which so powerfully works in me.”
                                                              
                                                               Colossians 1:28-29

I lost my cat two weeks ago.  Not the most encouraging way to open a post but its raw and its real and I promised you raw and real.  No plastic Christianity.  No polished version of spirituality.  Just me and the real stuff. 

Her name was Grace and she came to us not long after my salvation.  I gave her that name as a constant reminder to me of the grace that God had poured into my life when He revealed Himself to me.  She was a relentless cat, always climbing on us and making her presence known.  You couldn’t get away from Grace.  Her passing happened quickly.  I knew that she had been losing weight but she had always been a pudgy thing so no worries.  In the midst, I had a dog that had surgery and I was distracted by her recovery and rehab.  I hadn’t really noticed that Grace’s countenance was changing rapidly.   When I did, it was too late.   We had to let her go.  The hardest thing I have ever had to do. 

I know as I write this that Grace was a cat and not a human.  My heart, while heavy with loss, is very aware how exponentially more my grief would or could have been had it been a child or any human who had gripped my heart.  Yet my grief is real as is my guilt.  I keep thinking that “if only” I had done this or that, it might have turned out differently.  You see if we do everything perfectly and right doesn’t life go perfect and right.  If our life is easy and happy and goes exactly as we expect, doesn’t that somehow in a cosmic sense scream perfection, rightness, having it all-ness. 

While we might not admit to it, I think deep down for many of us this is the foundation of our theology.  We think if we follow all the rules and do things just perfectly, than life will be perfect.  No scars or bruises just a clear unblemished history of circumstances.  Unfortunately, life invades and keeping the rules and doing things perfectly is an unattainable goal.  Yet we keep trying.  We hang on to a theology that unrelentingly drives us with the mantra “if you just do this or that everything will work out”.  Happiness is attainable if you just do everything perfectly.  Do this!  Don’t do that!  Go here! Don’t go there!  The drive is relentless and unyielding.  Yet we succumb.  Over and over and over and we are miserable. 

In our passage today, Paul addresses perfectionism.  Why?  Because those annoying gnostic’s (I think that is what I will call them from now on) were telling everyone at Colossae that perfection was not only attainable but necessary for their spiritual life.  Sound familiar?  You can’t necessarily tell this from the above scriptures but this is where background and context are crucial to study.  Background and context.  They are so important when studying scripture.

We are going to address two questions today.  1) What does Paul mean by the terminology “perfect in Christ”?  2) Why is he struggling to that end? 

The word used for “perfect” in the original Greek manuscripts is teleios.  It generally means a goal or purpose but there are also several nuances with the word as it is translated into our English version Bibles.  Firstly, according to the lexical aid I am using, the use of teleios in Colossians 1:28 has a very specific connotation. 

         “In Colossians 1:28 the meaning of teleios is defined against the backdrop of what scholars have termed ‘incipient gnosticism’, a theology that threatened to undermine the pure gospel doctrine in the Colossian Church.  Gnosticism taught that faith in Christ was only a starting point in one’s experience of divine redemption and revelation; according to the Gnostic thought, lies a whole order of extraordinary religious experiences through which one could ascent to greater heights of redemptive knowledge.  Persons who had undergone these mystical experiences and gained this knowledge were thought of as initiates (teleioi) enlightened leaders initiated into divine mysteries.  As an argument against such showy nonsense, Paul states that his efforts of teaching and admonishing were aimed at presenting the fact that in Christ every man is already teleios.”   (Key Word Study Bible, AMG Publishers, p. 1678)

Paul was essentially explaining to the Colossians that there was no other experience that would make them more perfect.  In Christ, they had already achieved all that they needed spiritually.  It was finished. 

So if it was finished, what is all Paul laboring about?  Two paragraphs back I mentioned that this word for “perfect” in the Greek, had several nuances regarding its meaning.  Perfect can mean perfect as in Matthew 5:48 where we are instructed to “be perfect as God is perfect”.  Here it means perfect.  No softening of the meaning.  It is meant to be unattainable so that the reader would recognize his need for a savior.

But there are other places where the teleios is translated “mature”.   Most commentators agree that Paul was emphasizing the Colossians need to mature in their knowledge of Christ and what they already have in Him.  It seems Paul is doing two things by emphasizing his goal to present everyone perfect in Christ.  He is informing them that

1)   In Christ, they are already perfect.
2)   They need to mature in their understanding of this relationship. 

There is no plan B.  Only plan A.  They are already made perfect and they need to grow into the understanding of that perfection.  Everything they need or desire is found in Christ.  Nothing extraneous.  Only Jesus. 

How does this maturity happen?

James 1:4 should bring us some clarity. 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 (emphasis mine)

The word highlighted mature is our word teleios in the Greek.  James is telling us that maturity is directly connected trials.  It is through these trials, difficulties and challenges to our faith that we learn not only who God is but who we are as well.  We learn that life with Christ is not smooth sailing but a roller coaster ride filled with magnificent highs and heart pounding lows.  

Paul is implying to the Colossians, that this life of perfection is not free from adversity but that this adversity is part of what will mature us in our faith.  Paul at the time of this writing is in prison.  If anyone thought he must have done something less than perfect, it would be him.  Yet he was adamant about presenting everyone perfect in Christ.  Everyone would include him.    

On this path of perfection and maturity, we will face trials that cause us to doubt who we are and what we believe.  Trials that bring us to question the “Who” of our faith, the One who holds all things together and Who is supreme over all things yet allows the hardship that rends our hearts.  We don’t understand this God. It couldn’t be Him because He is good.  Perhaps there is something more I need.  It must be me.  I must be doing something wrong.  He is perfect.  Life with Him is supposed to be perfect.  We question, falter, argue, pound the pillow at night, yet we still believe. 

We persevere in spite of the ache in our hearts. 

We become aware that we are fallible and we are more conscious of our need for a savior.  We aren’t perfect after all.

We learn that our God is a wild God and He can not be tamed.

We lose things we love yet we still trust.

He lifts our heads and we press on.

And we mature.


One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the quiet confidence that God is in control…without the need to understand why he does what he does.

                                                               Charles Swindoll    

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