Mormonism
and Perfectionism
‘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.’
(The Book of Mormon - Moroni 10:32)
As a church we are currently going through the Book of Isaiah. After reading Isaiah 25 together, which speaks of God’s judgement against wickedness and the future joy of the believers, we discussed the question: What do we most look forward to God changing in our world?
Many
answers were concerned with God putting an end to things like war, starvation,
child trafficking, and all kinds of evil in our world. Don’t we all long for
such things?
In
engaging people with the gospel, you sometimes hear the objection: ‘If there is
a God, why doesn’t he sort all the suffering in the world?’ This appears a
reasonable question until you point out that for God to fulfil this request, He
would have to remove all of us. You see we are all sinners:
‘…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God’. (Romans 3:23)
As
sinners, none of us are, or can ever be in this life, perfect.
Be
Ye Perfect
This
is not what Mormons are taught by their General Authorities. Mormons are told
that they must be perfect in this life.
‘In the context of the spirit of forgiveness, one good
brother asked me, ‘Yes, that is what ought to be done, but how do you do it?
Doesn’t that take a superman?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, but we are commanded to be
supermen. Said the Lord, ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect.’ (Matt.5:48.) We are gods in embryo, and the Lord demands
perfection of us’”[1]
This
is a terrible burden to place upon anyone’s shoulders. In turning to Matthew
5:48, Mormons may challenge us pointing out that the Bible says we are to be
perfect, but what does this verse mean? Does it mean we can live in sinless
perfection?
A
Sinless Sinner?
The
Bible is very clear that we are sinners. If we could, through our own efforts,
be perfectly sinless, then why did Jesus need to die for the forgiveness of
sin?
If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in
us. (1 John 1:8-10)
Some commentators understand Jesus’ words at Matthew 5:48 not as a call to sinless perfection, but rather a hermeneutical key to understanding all that Jesus’ taught in his Sermon on the Mount.
The idea here is that in His teaching, Jesus is not laying
out a way of life that can be attained by sinful people; rather he is pointing
out that perfection is so far out of our reach, that we must turn to him for
mercy and forgiveness. This idea can also be found when Paul says that the law
was given to lead us to Christ:
‘So then, the law was our guardian until
Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.’ (Galatians
3:24)
If
you have ever read all that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount and found
yourself saying: ‘I cannot possibly do all that He says’, then you get the
idea. The only way we can possibly be perfect in the eyes of God, is by coming
to Jesus in repentance and faith. Is this what Jesus meant by telling His
followers ‘be ye perfect?’ Maybe, but let us consider some other possibilities.
Perfect
The
word ‘perfect’ in the Greek is teleios (τέλειος). This word, translated as ‘perfect’ can equally
be translated as ‘mature’ or ‘complete’. It certainly does not mean to be without
sin. Also, when we consider the context, we can better understand verse 48:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so
that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise
on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you
have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And
if you greet only your brothers,[i] what
more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.
Putting this verse in its context shows that Jesus is
finishing a section where he speaks about what real love should look like.
People believed that it was right to love certain people (neighbours) and hate
others (enemies), but Jesus was to challenge this thinking. He tells us that we
are to love our enemies – why? So that we may be sons of our Father who is in
heaven. By loving and praying for our enemies we are being like our heavenly
Father. He is perfect. If we want to be perfect (mature and complete) we are to
love as He does. This can be also seen in the equivalent verse found in Luke
6:36:
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
We
cannot be perfect in the sense of sinless perfection, but we are to be mature,
complete, merciful just as our Father in heaven is.
Next
time we will consider further why Mormons believe they need to be perfect.
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