We are commanded to become perfect. The Savior taught the Jewish people, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Many people find this commandment to be
overwhelming and become discouraged when they make mistakes. People often feel that perfection is
unattainable and thus not worth working toward.
We all need to realize that perfection in this life is not expected or
even possible. What is expected is that
we try each day to be better than we were the previous day. We can reach perfection eventually if we do
the best we can each day.
Perfection is an attainable goal for us. According to footnote b to Matthew 5:48, the
word "perfect" means to become "complete, finished, fully
developed." Becoming perfect does
not mean never making a mistake. It
means repenting of our sins, learning from our mistakes, and working to become
complete, fully developed, righteous people, like our Father in Heaven and
Jesus Christ. Becoming this kind of
person is not an event that happens all at once; it is a process that we must
work at all our lives.
Striving for perfection can be compared to a
beautiful object carved from a piece of wood.
The item was once just a piece of wood, and it did not become beautiful
or useful all at once. It had to be
carefully and gradually shaped and polished by the person who made it. Likewise, we do not become perfect all at
once. We gradually and carefully
"shape" and "polish" ourselves by following Christ's
example and striving to live his teachings.
Jesus Christ is our model for perfection and
taught us how we could become like Him.
He taught the ancient inhabitants of America
This teaching is very similar to that given to
the Jews, but it refers to the perfection of Jesus Christ as well as the
perfection of our Father in Heaven. Matthew
5:48 was spoken while Jesus was alive on the earth, while 3 Nephi 12:48 was
spoken during Jesus' visit to the Nephites after his Resurrection. Although Jesus was without sin, He did not
become perfect - complete, finished, fully developed - until after He was
resurrected. (See Luke 13:32: "…
and the third day I shall be perfected.") Likewise, we will not be perfected until
after we are resurrected. But our Father
in Heaven and our Savior expect us to begin the process of perfection while we
are on the earth and to make a sincere daily effort toward becoming perfect.
Jesus Christ was the very first person to be
resurrected and become perfect and set an example for us to follow. When He taught the Nephites, "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to
be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." (Book of Mormon - Another Testimony of Jesus Christ, 3 Nephi 27:27), He suggested that we could work toward
perfection by becoming as much like Him as we could.
The ancient American prophet Moroni wrote, "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in
him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of
all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is
his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ;
and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the
power of God" (Book of Mormon - Another Testimony of Jesus Christ, Moroni 10:32).
While perfection cannot be entirely achieved in
mortal life, we can make great progress toward it. The Lord expects us to do all we can toward
giving up our sins and becoming
perfect, and He has given us the gospel to help us do this. We can do this by using the principles and
ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The fourth Article of Faith tells us that "the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;
second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins;
fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Hoy Ghost" (Pearl of Great Price, Articles of
Faith 1:4).
"Faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ" helps us grow toward perfection because the
Savior is the only perfect person who ever lived on this earth. He is the reason why we can make repentance
and baptism effective in our lives.
Repentance helps us progress because it helps us
to erase our sins and stay clean after we are baptized. Through baptism we become members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has been organized to help
us learn and do what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to do.
Receiving the Holy Ghost helps us grow and
progress when we seek and follow His promptings because these promptings will
always lead us to right actions.
Perfection is a very individual process. We are all on the same path towards
perfection as we strive to become like Jesus Christ, but we are also on
different paths because we are individuals with different strengths and
weaknesses. We use our strengths and
overcome our weakness as we learn the principles of perfection and recognize
that each of us will grow and develop in our own times and in our own way. One person may be very faithful in keeping
the Word of Wisdom but find it difficult to pay tithing, while another may find
it easy to pay tithing but struggle for years to overcome selfishness.
Because
perfection is such an individual process, we should never compare ourselves
with others. We should never criticize
others in their development. Comparisons
lead to discouragement, and criticisms are destructive. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will not
compare us to each other but will evaluate our progress according to our own
individual capabilities and efforts.
We should not expect to attain perfection
instantly. We can eliminate feelings of
failure or being overwhelmed by focusing on only one or two areas at a time for
our learning and development. As we
improve in individual areas of the gospel, we move toward our ultimate goal of
perfection.
The Savior taught, "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Matthew
24:13). "Endure to the end"
means to stay faithful throughout our lives.
Enduring to the end does not mean reaching a certain level of progress
and then simply maintaining that level.
It means working every day to become a more righteous person.
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles stated: "Brothers
and sisters, let us do the best we can and try to improve each day. When our imperfections appear, we can keep
trying to correct them. We can be more
forgiving of flaws in ourselves and among those we love…. We need not be dismayed if our earnest
efforts toward perfection now seem so arduous and endless. Perfection … awaits all who love [the Lord]
and keep his commandments" (Ensign, Nov.
1995, 88).
While perfection cannot be completely achieved in
this life, we are expected to begin the process and make a sincere effort to
overcome our sins and to become like Jesus Christ. We must remember that Jesus Christ through His
atoning sacrifice made it possible for us to become perfected. We should not become discouraged if
perfection seems far away. We must
remember that we are a work in progress as we strive to become a perfected
individual and that we can move toward perfection by focusing on one or two
principles of the gospel at a time.
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