Be ye therefore perfect

I had a completely different blogpost in mind, but I was reading Elder David A. Bednar's book, Power to Become and he clarified something that I have been thinking a lot about: perfection. He quotes President Russell M. Nelson, who discussed Christ's mandate to be perfect, in Matthew 5:48. He says, "the term perfect was translated from the Greek telios, which means 'complete.'" This is something I think that is mentioned a lot in the Mormon church, but I think how President Nelson further explains is key. "The infinitive form of the verb is teleiono, which means 'to reach a distant end, to be fully developed, to consummate, or to finish.' Please note that the word does not imply 'freedom from error'; it implies achieving a distant objective.'" He goes on to explain that the Greeks could have used a completely different word, if they wanted to mean "freedom from error."

So, let me reiterate the point that President Nelson and Elder Bednar were making: To be perfect does not mean to be without mistakes. Guys, do you know how freeing that knowledge can be? Because, literally, none of us are going to make it through this life without mistakes. I mean, that is literally the whole point of the Atonement: because we would not make it through this life without making mistakes. Recently, as I've been going to the temple and listening to the words of the ordinances and covenants, I've noticed certain words and phrases. Like "clean," or "sins are washed away." The promises are not predicated on being sinless, but on striving for obedience, turning to the Lord, and enduring to the end - finishing our journey. Or, maybe in the words of Paul, fighting the good fight.

So, what I'm trying to say to you all is, stop putting so much pressure on you, on your friends, on the church, because you are not expected to be sinless. Instead, you are expected to be clean. You are expected to turn to the Lord for forgiveness. Now, obviously, this is not permission to go out and sin; it's just reminding you that sin is, essentially, inevitable. You are going to make mistakes. And that is okay. Because we have a Savior that we can turn to. We have help along the way. When we make a mistake, we can repent and be purified and made clean. And the cool thing is, as we continue down the path and become closer and closer to finishing, it becomes easier to make less and less mistakes. AND the Atonement that Christ provided actually gives us strength to withstand and overcome, so when temptations and weakness beset us, we can turn to the Atonement, not only to become clean, but to prevent ourselves from making mistakes.

So, the point of my short and sweet blogpost today is to remind you that it is okay that you sometimes make mistakes. God did not command us to be sinless. He commanded us to repent, become clean, and make it to the end. We should strive to be as obedient as possible, but that does not mean we need to beat ourselves up, degrade ourselves, become hopeless, or believe that we are a lost cause when we do make mistakes.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. - Isaiah 1:18