Dangers of Perfectionism, Part 2: 2 Essentials

In Part 1 of this series, we examined how perfectionism can invade the church and the Christian life in an insidious way. 

Sin ravages. Love ravishes. And the difference between the two is as big as the Grand Canyon. 

You see, what Jesus is saying in our focal passage (John 15:9-11) is this: “I’ve created a new reality. A new reality that means at the very visceral heart of who you are, you are an outflowing of the divine life that pours in and through me into you.”

‘You Are the Branches’

Remember? He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5a)—not “Become the branches,” but “You are the branches.”

Do you hear the difference? And God says, “Not only are you the branches, but I’m also a gardener; I’m the pruner. And I’m cutting away those places in your life that make it difficult for you to live into this positional reality I’ve created. It’s not your task; I’m doing that. So not only have I created this positional union between you and me, between Jesus and his disciples, I’m also coming around and pruning. I’m cutting away any of the places in your life that make it difficult for you to receive the divine life I’m pouring into you. I’m the one cutting them away.” 

Now–if you really want to rebel against the vine, and say, “No, I’m going to do what I want to do”—do you really want to do that? Do you really want to be the branch that’s cut away? 

Come on. Get real. Of course you don’t. 

The fact of the matter is that when you begin with the position of union given to you in Jesus, you can, in essence, exhale. You can say with confidence, “I’m already in the vine. Jesus is at work in my life. He has created a relationship between Him and me that is in fact by grace, inextricable. I’m his. I belong there.”

The closest way I can explain this is the kind of love that exists between deeply in love, long-term married couples who can just sit with each other, and it’s all OK. Nothing has to be said. Nothing has to be done. And there’s not a thread inside them that says, “Ohhh, I hope she likes me today.” All that’s gone. Over the years, it has been washed away.

“I am the vine, you are the branches.” Enough said.

‘That Your Joy May Be Complete’

“I have said these things to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). This is what is true. God’s pruning action is what is true. It may even be that in the keeping of the commandments, which we read as a list of moral obligations, Jesus might be saying to us, “to live into this is the commandment I ask of you, not the fulfilling of a religious duty that always keeps you insecure in my presence.”

You hear the difference. Because that would mean if there is a task, that task is to learn how to exhale. That task is to learn how to walk in the contentment and joy of a relationship that Jesus has established. That task is to live more into the abiding and seeing as wicked the terrible nature of sin that drives us, the ravaging nature of our own perfectionism, that is in fact the enemy. The enemy!

So instead of hearing that voice that whispers, “Try harder, work harder, because maybe God doesn’t like you today,” recognize it as just a part of your own sin nature. Face it as evil, evil that will do its best to kill you. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10a). 

And that’s what this perfectionistic nature is out to do to you. And the only antidote, the only antidote, is this: “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5). Not “become the branch.” You are the branch. I am the branch. And together, we are learning how to relax into the presence of God that will never, never let us go.

And in his presence is the place of true, profound and lasting joy. 

How has perfectionism hurt you? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer. 

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on May 18, 2017, in the Bishop’s Oratory of the Diocesan Office, Orlando.) 

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.