God's View:
Gen. 3:1-5
- Be as God and be perfect, independent. Shame
came as they realized they were not perfect. Without God, now
on their own, trying to be god by their own wisdom and strength,
self-concerned fear enters into the human race.
Gen. 1:26-28 - God's word is the source of life which enables man to exist in a blessed state. To reject God's word is to default to the word of Satan who says we can be complete in ourselves. Fear enters as a constant because we can never be complete unless we live by God's word.
The issue is a quest for completeness, and man will not be complete until he is complete in Christ. The need to be perfect is inherent in man but this is only possible when man lives by the word of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit who enables man to apply the word which conforms man to the image of Christ as God initially planned.
This is accomplished as we put-off self-effort and rely on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in all of life's functions in a spirit of purity and holiness , revealing the character of God through us to the world. The emphasis, therefore, is to stop trying to be god, and let God be God for us, in us, as us, Gal. 2:20 ; Col. 1:27 .
Humanism :
Who I am is my performance as rated by someone,
their acceptance and approval. Thus, not being accepted and approved,
rejection and shame enter revealing a focus on the self to be
perfect and complete, impressing others I can handle life on my
own.
Elements of Perfectionism:
Solutions:
Col. 2:10
; John 16:8-13
- We can be complete only in God,
God completes us.
1 John 1:7 ; Phil. 2:12-13 - As we obey His commandments, He works in us to complete us.
Eph. 4:22-24 - Our job is to put-off the obsession with the self, and put -on the true self, Jesus Christ.
Matt. 22:37-39 -The emphasis is on God to fill us with His Presence which enables us to be a blessing to others. To be functional is to allow God to love others through us, otherwise we become dysfunctional.
Key: We are imperfect. God uses trials and temptations to reveal these imperfections in order to prompt us to turn to Him to complete the process began in the 1st Adam. Through our human spirit, the Spirit of God fulfills and completes our souls, clearing away the areas of imperfections, to enable us to do the things Jesus did: to bless others and to destroy the works of the devil.