What Does God Ask of Us—Perfection or Excellence?

As followers of Christ, we represent him to the world. Therefore, we should do all things well, right? Like he would. Not sloppy or half-way, but thoroughly and with great care. Perfectly. Excellent in all our ways. Perfect . . . excellent? I used the two words interchangeably until I discovered quite a difference between them.

According to Merriam-Webster, excellent means of very high quality. However, perfect is “being entirely without fault or defect.” And perfectionism is the mentality that regards “anything short of perfection as unacceptable.”

The Impossibility of Perfection

Whew! Imperfect man trying to be “entirely without fault or defect” can set us up for constant failure. Charles Spurgeon said it well:

“Do you not feel in your own soul that perfection is not in you? Does not every day teach you that? Every tear which trickles from your eye, weeps “imperfection”; every sigh which bursts from your heart, cries “imperfection”; every harsh word which proceeds from your lip, mutters “imperfection.” You have too frequently had a view of your own heart to dream for a moment of any perfection in yourself.” [1]

The Bible is full of righteous, yet imperfect, people. One is David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) but whose failures were glaring. His heart-wrenching psalms of repentance were recorded for us (e.g. Psalm 32).

Another was Job. God spoke highly of him: “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason’” (Job 2:3). Blameless means “complete, morally innocent” (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Though Job sounds sinless, he confessed he was not when he said, “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).

Unfortunately, our desire for perfection may focus on ourselves rather than God. We want to look perfect, perform perfectly, and say everything perfectly so people will think highly of us. We want to be validated as a person of worth. Seeking perfection is often rooted “in our desire for acceptance and fear of rejection.” [2]

But what if we are focusing on God, trying to be perfectly like he wants us to be in order to please him? Even then, our perfectionistic endeavors will be rewarded with frustration. We are attempting the impossible, for God alone is perfect. “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he“ (Deuteronomy 32:4).

The Perfection that Comes Only from God

God’s nature is perfect; man’s is not. We can only be made perfect by the One who is perfect. Hebrews 10:14 tells us how: “. . . by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” The Greek word teleioó means “to bring to an end, to complete, perfect” (Strong’s Concordance). Here it refers to preparing someone “for future entrance [to heaven] and give him a sure hope of it even here on earth” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). By Jesus’ life on earth and his shed blood on the cross, he has already purchased the perfection that gains our entrance into his kingdom. This perfection has nothing to do with us doing anything – perfectly or imperfectly.

Why God Tells Us to “be perfect”

Why, then, does God tell us to be perfect like it is something we can do? In his sermon on the mount, Jesus told his followers to “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Similar to the previous verse, the Greek word here is teleios and is used to mean “complete in all its parts . . . specially of the completeness of Christian character” (Strong’s).

Since the verse has a therefore, we must look at the context. In the preceding verses, Jesus says to love our enemies as we love our neighbors (Matthew 5:43-47). He is not telling us to love perfectly as he does, but to imitate him in loving “completely in all its parts”; that is, loving friends and enemies, the just and unjust, the good and bad (Gill’s Exposition). We can never love perfectly. However, God wants us to follow his example of loving everyone – including those who persecute us.

Biblical Excellence

Excellence means of very high quality, but it is not the same as flawless. “Biblically speaking, the pursuit of excellence refers to pursuing and doing the best we can with the gifts and abilities God gives, giving our best to the glory of God.” [3]

We are to excel in our character. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). The Greek word here refers to “any particular moral excellence” (Thayer’s).

We are to excel in the things we do. “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). The words give yourselves fully are sometimes translated “excel.” It comes from the Greek word for “exceed, go beyond the expected measure, i.e. above and beyond” (HELPS Word-studies), “to abound, overflow” (Thayer’s). Nothing half-hearted here.

Excellence applies to everything we do. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might . . .” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

And the focus of our excellent pursuits is to be on glorifying God. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Pursue Perfection and Live in Excellence

The perfection we can experience in this life comes only from a relationship with Jesus. His blood covers our sins and makes it possible to enter his sinless dwelling place for eternity. Regardless of how closely we walk with him, though, we will never be without faults or defects. The apostle Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). He dedicated his entire life to God, yet he recognized his shortcomings.

In spite of his flaws, though, Paul continued moving toward that perfection, closer to God’s ideal for him. In Paul’s final greetings in his letters to the church at Corinth, he urged Jesus’ followers to do the same. “Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11).

It is unlikely we will reach the unblemished state of perfection in this life, but in aiming for it we will live excellent lives – growing in character and doing everything to the best of our abilities in order to glorify God. This is what he asks of us.

Scripture quotations are from NIV.

Hebrew and Greek definitions and commentary are from Bible Hub. See Resources.

Feature photo by Eran Menashri on Unsplash

[1] From Morning by Morning Devotional Journal, “January 28,” published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

[2] Lay Aside the Weight of Perfection

[3] The Pursuit of Excellence