The Idea of Perfection

Jenna Wynn

Yesterday the class came to a discussion about the idea of someone who can achieve “perfect love” or be a “perfect Christian.” I'm not sure if that is exactly where the discussion lead towards, but I wanted to touch upon this idea of people who claim themselves to have achieved perfection. Whether it be just all around perfect, or perfect in their Christianity or their spirituality.
I'm going to state this very blatantly but I believe people who claim to be perfect in their love and in their religion are completely arrogant. Yes, I believe people can become very spiritual and have extremely good habits, but just the very idea that they believe they are perfect is a sin and very flawed.

Humans are born with free will, but included in that free will is sin. We are natural born sinners. There is no way to completely rid oneself of sinning. We sin sometimes without even knowing it. I don't think God is asking us to become perfect beings or wants us to believe we are perfect. I believe that we show our “pure love” just with the choices that we make everyday. We are constantly challenged everyday to show whether we are going to act upon love. Without these challenges, how can we come to know love more? If we believe we are perfect that means we have nothing else to learn, and that in itself is wrong. There are so many things that we as humans still have yet to know and understand, so to think that you are “perfect” is almost putting yourself right up there with God. Only God knows all, and only God can comprehend what perfection actually is. We as humans haven't even ever comprehended perfection in itself, so how can we claim that we've reached that state? In Eastern Religion, with Buddhism, if one is seeking nirvana, one cannot claim they have been enlightened because that defeats the entire purpose of enlightenment. Striving to be better and to live in pure love is different than being perfect or claiming that you are. Whenever I meet someone who thinks they're perfect, I just ask them if they can walk on water. Problem solved!