Another Essay

Same disclaimer as before: PLEASE DO NOT COPY OR USE THIS MATERIAL WITHOUT ASKING ME FIRST AND ALWAYS CITE ME.

This was my first essay for my current class. I received a 25/25 on it! :)

Christian Perfection:
A Process Not A Status

By
Sharon McQueary
B.A. - Bowling Green State University, 2003

Submitted to Dr. Edwin Crawford, Professor
for PL 551 Philosophical Foundations of Ministry
at Northwest Nazarene University
February 8, 2009

Words are highly effective. They infuse emotion. They make or break many relationships. They control our lives. How we define each word that we choose to utter may not be a universal definition of the word. There will be quite likely differing attitudes towards and characterizations to any given word that we speak. The word “perfection” is one such word. Many describe perfection (as Plato did) as an ideal, as an almost always unattainable status in which faults or mistakes do not exist. This is true no matter what object or concept one would apply the word “perfection” or “perfect” to (i.e. the perfect house, the perfect child). Anyone would question such claims. The same is true when the word “perfection” and all its innuendos are coupled with the term “Christian” – Christian Perfection. John Wesley said, “whosoever preaches perfection (as the phrase is,) that is, asserts that it is attainable in this life, runs great hazard of being accounted by them worse than a heathen man or a publican.[1]” Even hundreds of years ago, how one chose to speak about perfection had to be well thought out and executed. Wesley later argues in his 40th sermon that the idea of Christian perfection is laid out in the Bible; it cannot be avoided or ignored because of one’s apprehensiveness to the word. If Christian perfection is indeed real and attainable, it must be thoroughly explained. Our words must be not only intentional, but more significantly, believable. Christian perfection must have accurate characterization carried to the minds and hearts of those who find their prior understanding of perfection to be offensive.
The Apostle Paul in describing his Christian walk said, "I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.[2]” Other versions of the Bible use the word perfect in this passage. The NIV and KJV both speak of being made perfect; tying the Christian walk to a movement towards perfection. The writings of Aristotle, a student of Plato’s, lend much credence the concept of Christian perfection. Through Aristotle’s understanding of the nature of reality, Christian perfection becomes more than a status rarely ever attained. Christian perfection is the process in which one is becoming all that they were intended by their Creator to be. Christian perfection becomes a process that is lived out in our lives, not a rank or position that places us higher than others.
This paper will argue that Christian perfection juxtaposed with Aristotle’s view of reality provides a believable case for one’s ability, through a process of continual forward-motion, to move towards Christian perfection in this life. Defining humanity’s purpose for existence is the first step; afterwards we will visit Aristotle’s idea of potentiality and actuality in regards to living a life of just being or advancing to a life of becoming.
“Men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the ‘why’ of. So we too must do this as regards both coming to be and passing away and every kind of physical change, in order that, knowing their principles, we may try to refer to these principles each of our problems.[3]” The simple fact is that we wonder who we are, why we are and is there more. As far back as Adam and Eve in the garden, humanity has pondered the meaning and purpose of life.
Aristotle’s method of teleology “claims that there is purpose in existence.[4]” Being created for a purpose is familiar to all Christians. An essential part of believing in Jesus Christ is an understanding that all humanity has an eternal purpose, whether it is realized or unrealized. (Ephesians 3:14-17, Amplified, Ephesians 1:3-14, NIV)
The most basic explanation of our purpose in existence is that God created humans to commune with Him, to be in relationship with Him. From that premise, our purpose is stretched out almost endlessly. When created Adam and Eve could be said to have been created in perfect being. They were in relationship with God living there intended purpose.
Something happened in the Garden of Eden with the first humans. They chose to break fellowship with God; they chose to stop being what they were intended to be and the ensuing result was the fall of humanity. A barrier was placed between God and His creation, most simply defined as ourselves. Humanity had placed itself before their purpose of relationship with God. The idea of just being, of fulfilling our purpose, was now impossible.
Thousands of years later, God provided a way to once and for all restore that divine purpose of existence through Jesus Christ. Through his life, death, burial and resurrection Jesus Christ poured grace on the broken wounds of humanity and if acknowledged His grace gives the ability to restore one’s purpose in existence, to be in relationship with God. What once was with Adam and Eve, just simply being had been lost forever. God’s grace endows the believer with the ability to recapture that purpose in a new way - through becoming. Christian perfection is through the grace of God perpetual movement toward our divine purpose of existence to become what God made us to be.
Aristotle’s perceptions of potentiality and actuality are reasonably applicable to finding an authentic understanding of what biblical Christian perfection is. “Potentiality is what a thing is capable of doing or being acted upon, if it is not prevented by something else…Actuality is the fulfillment of the end of the potentiality.[5]” An example is that of a sunflower seed. When placed in soil, the sunflower seed has the potential to become a towering sunflower. When and only when the seed becomes a sunflower has it reached its actuality.
Recalling Adam and Eve for a moment, they were created in a category of being their intended purpose. They were actuality. As we’ve already discussed this soon changed and left humanity unable to “be” their purpose. Humanity actuality was taken away, humanity was moved to a status of potentiality. Humanity was left with only the potential to become or actualize their purpose in existence. “The Wesleyan claim is that the grace of God (in Christ Jesus) can restore humans to the original purpose that God intended.”[6] Once Jesus Christ and His grace realized, and no longer hindered ourselves, our potential is set on track to become actuality. This being on track is a process. It is the process of Christian Perfection. Christian perfection is not about attaining a status, in fact, when viewed as a status, it is never able to be reached. For Wesley, “there is no absolute perfection on earth…so that how much soever any man hath attained, or in how high a degree soever he is perfect, he hath still need to ‘grow in grace’ [2 Pet. 3:18] and daily to advance in the knowledge and love of God his Savior.[7]” Christian perfection is about “reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out”[8] for us.
If one lays aside their preconceived notions of perfection that have been adopted (maybe unknowingly) from Plato’s explanation of perfection as a status, Christian perfection is not something to be scuffed off. It cannot be ignored or dismissed. With appropriate phraseology all ambiguity concerning the words Christian perfection can be released from our imaginations and we can begin to become what God intended us to be!
[1] Wesley Center for Applied Theology, “Sermon Forty, Christian Perfection,” The Sermons of John Wesley 1872 Edition, February 4, 2009, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/040.htm
[2] Philippians 3:12-14 (The Message).
[3] Aristotle, Physics.
[4] Crawford, Edwin. Lecture 2 Week One – Tuesday.
[5] Wikipedia, Aristotle, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
[6] Crawford, Edwin. Lecture 2 Week One – Tuesday.
[7] Wesley Center for Applied Theology, “Sermon Forty, Christian Perfection,” The Sermons of John Wesley 1872 Edition, February 4, 2009, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/040.htm
[8] Philippians 3:12