Perfection?

Like most of you, during my first 18 years of life I did my usual grade school education.  There are not many occasions that stand out in my mind when I received a test back and scored perfectly.  As a matter of fact since that time—having take,  almost 35 courses of one description or another—not many perfects.   
With that lack of perfection imagine my immediate “Really?” when I read “We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection.” 2 Corinthians 13:9, NIV.   Paul was praying for the Corinthians’ ‘perfection.’ This brings me to three questions:
1.  How much praying is Paul planning on doing?  I’m thinking… LOTS!
2.  Maybe the Corinthian congregation wasn’t as bad as the letter reveals?
3.  Maybe perfection doesn’t mean what I think.  Let’s work with that for a minute.
The New Living Translation uses the phrase “What we pray for is your restoration to maturity.”  Well, that’s a little better.  The word ‘perfection’ is the word ‘katartisis’ which has the basic meaning of ‘thorough, equipment perfection.’ More specifically in this text scholars tell us it has the idea of training—the process of perfecting and maturation.  So, it could be translated ‘we pray for your maturation—for the perfecting of your character.’ In this particular form the word is not used anywhere else in the New Testament.  It does however have a root word that has the idea of repairing, or adjusting, or restoring.

Now, Paul’s prayer translates into a couple of goals:


  1. God expects more from me.  He is not done with me.  I cannot sit back on my past successes and think—‘Boy, it’s good to have arrived!’
  2. What God does in me—tends to be more process oriented than event oriented.  God is unlikely to wave a magic Holy Spirit wand over my head and purify my character—it’s going to take time.  So, I need to stay focused on my journey.
  3. I constantly think of the three deadly sins Richard Foster wrote about:  Money, Sex, and Power.  Then, I think of the fourth sin Dr Van Johnson added to the list in a sermon I heard him preach—comparison.   In my strive to perfection I cannot compare myself with you—I must compare myself with Jesus. 
  4. I also have a responsibility to pray for others, nudge them on their journeys, lift them out of a spiritual ditch, or knock them off their high horse—or kick them in the spiritual pants if necessary.

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