The scriptures were written to bless and encourage us, and surely they do that. We do thank heaven for every chapter and verse we've ever been given. But have you noticed that every now and then a passage will appear that reminds us we are falling a little short? For example,the Sermon on the Mount begins with soothing, beautiful, gentle beatitudes, but in the verses that follow, we are told--among other things--not only not to kill but also not even tobe angry. We are told not only not to commit adultery but also not to even have impurethoughts. To those who ask for it, we are to give our coat and then give our cloak also. Weare to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to them that hate us.
If that's your morning scripture study, and after reading just that far you are pretty certainyou are not going to get good marks on your gospel report card, then the finalcommandment in the chain is sure to finish the job: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as yourFather ... in heaven is perfect." With that concluding imperative, we want to go back to bedand pull the covers over our head. Such celestial goals seem beyond our reach. Yet surely theLord would never give us a commandment He knew we could not keep. Let's see where thisquandary takes us.
Around the Church I hear many struggle with this issue: "I am just not good enough." "I fallso far short." "I will never measure up." I hear this from teenagers. I hear it frommissionaries. I hear it from new converts. I hear it from lifelong members. One insightfulLatter-day Saint, Sister Darla Isackson, has observed that Satan has somehow managed tomake covenants and commandments seem like curses and condemnations. For some hehas turned the ideals and inspiration of the gospel into self-loathing and misery-making.
What I now say in no way denies or diminishes any commandment of God He has ever givenus. I believe in His perfection, and I know we are His spiritual sons and daughters with divinepotential to become as He is. I also know that as children of God, we should not demean orvilify ourselves, as if beating up on ourselves is somehow going to make us the person Godwants us to become. No! With a willingness to repent and a desire for increasedrighteousness always in our hearts, I would hope we could pursue personal improvement ina way that doesn't include getting ulcers or anorexia, feeling depressed, or demolishing self-esteem. That is not what the Lord wants for Primary children or anyone else who honestlysings, "I'm trying to be like Jesus."
To put this issue in context, may I remind all of us that we live in a fallen world and for nowwe are a fallen people. We are in the telestial kingdom; that's spelled with a t, not a c, yet. AsPresident Russell M. Nelson has taught, here in mortality perfection is still "pending."
So I believe that Jesus did not intend His sermon on this subject to be a verbal hammer forbattering us into our shortcomings. No, I believe He intended it to be a tribute to who andwhat God the Eternal Father is and what we can achieve with Him in eternity. In any case, Iam grateful to know that in spite of my imperfections, at least God is perfect--that at least Heis, for example, able to love His enemies, because too often, due to the "natural man" andwoman in us, you and I are sometimes that enemy. How grateful I am that at least God canbless those who despitefully use Him because, without wanting to or intending to, we alldespitefully use Him sometimes. I am grateful that God is merciful and a peacemakerbecause I need mercy and the world needs peace. Of course, all we say of the Father'svirtues we also say of His Only Begotten Son, who lived and died unto the same perfection.
I hasten to say that focusing on the Father's and the Son's achievements rather than ourfailures does not give us one ounce of justification for undisciplined lives or dumbing downour standards. No, from the beginning the gospel has been "for the perfecting of the saints,... till we ... come ... unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness ofChrist." No, I am simply suggesting that at least one purpose of a scripture or acommandment can be to remind us just how magnificent "the measure of the stature of thefulness of Christ" really is, inspiring in us greater love and admiration for Him and a greaterdesire to be like Him.
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him," Moroni pleads. "Love God with all yourmight, mind and strength, then ... by his grace [you] may be perfect in Christ." Our only hopefor true perfection is in receiving it as a gift from heaven. We won't earn it. Thus, the grace ofChrist offers us not only salvation from sorrow and sin and death but also salvation from ourown persistent self-criticism.
Let me use one of the Savior's parables to say this in a little different way. A servant was indebt to his king for the amount of 10,000 talents. Hearing the servant's plea for patience andmercy, "the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and ... forgave ... the debt." Butthen that same servant would not forgive a fellow servant who owed him 100 pence. Onhearing this, the king lamented to the one he had forgiven, "Shouldest not thou also havehad compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?"
Now, there's some little difference of opinion among scholars regarding the monetary valuesmentioned here. And forgive the U.S. monetary reference. But to make the math easy, if thesmaller, unforgiven 100-pence debt were, say, $100 in current times, then the 10,000-talentdebt so freely forgiven would have approached $1 billion--or more!
As a personal debt, that is an astronomical number, totally beyond our comprehension.Nobody can shop that much.
For the purposes of this parable, it is supposed to be incomprehensible; it is supposed to bebeyond our ability to grasp, to say nothing of beyond our ability to repay. That is becausethis isn't a story about two servants arguing in the New Testament. It is a story about us, thefallen human family--mortal debtors, transgressors, and prisoners all. Every one of us is adebtor, and the verdict was imprisonment for every one of us. And there we would have allremained were it not for the grace of a King, who sets us free because He loves us and is"moved with compassion toward us."
Jesus uses an unfathomable measurement here because His Atonement is an unfathomablegift given at an incomprehensible cost. That, it seems to me, is at least part of the meaningbehind Jesus's charge to be perfect. We may not be able to demonstrate yet the 10,000-talent perfection the Father and the Son have achieved, but it is not too much for Them toask us that we be a little more godlike in little things, that we speak and act and love andforgive and repent and improve at least at a 100-pence level of perfection, which it is clearlywithin our ability to do.
My brothers and sisters, except for Jesus, there have been no flawless performances on thisearthly journey we are pursuing. So while in mortality let's strive for steady improvement without obsessing over what behavioral scientists might call "toxic perfectionism." We shouldavoid that latter excessive expectation of ourselves and of others and, I might add, of thosewho are called to serve in the Church--which for Latter-day Saints means everyone, for weare all called to serve somewhere.
In that regard, Leo Tolstoy wrote once of a priest who was criticized by one of hiscongregants for not living as resolutely as he should, the critic concluding that the principlesthe erring preacher taught must therefore also be erroneous.
In response to that criticism, the priest says: "Look at my life now and compare it to myformer life. You will see that I am trying to live ... the truth I proclaim." Unable to live up tothe high ideals he taught, the priest admits he has failed. But he cries:
"Attack me [then if you wish], I do this myself, but [don't] attack ... the path I follow. ... If Iknow the way home [but] am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way simplybecause I am staggering from side to side?
"... Do not gleefully shout, 'Look at him! ... There he is crawling into a bog!' No, [don't] gloat, ...give ... your help [to anyone trying to walk the road back to God.]"
Brothers and sisters, every one of us aspires to a more Christlike life than we often succeedin living. If we admit that honestly and are trying to improve, we are not hypocrites; we arehuman. May we refuse to let our own mortal follies, and the inevitable shortcomings of eventhe best men and women around us, to make us cynical about the truths of the gospel, thetruthfulness of the Church, our hope for the future, or the possibility of godliness. If wepersevere, then somewhere in eternity our refinement will be finished and complete--whichis the New Testament meaning of perfection.
I testify of that grand destiny, made available to us by the Atonement of the Lord JesusChrist, who Himself continued "from grace to grace" until in His immortality He received aperfect fulness of celestial glory. I testify that in this and every hour He is, with nail-scarredhands, extending to us that same grace, holding on to us and encouraging us, refusing to letus go, until we are safely home in the embrace of Heavenly Parents. For such a perfectmoment, I continue to strive, however clumsily. For such a perfect gift, I continue to givethanks, however inadequately. I do so in the very name of Perfection itself, Him who hasnever been clumsy or inadequate but who loves all of us who are, even the Lord Jesus Christ,amen.
