IMPERFECTION IS NOT ELIMINATION
[9-minute read]
STRIVING FOR PERFECTION may make our efforts appear noble but being faithful to God is not about how flawless and faultless we appear to Him. In truth, human perfection does not exist and to reject this is to reject our humanity – with all its imperfections and failings.
When Jesus renamed Simon as Peter – which means rock - he was far from being a perfect rock (Matthew 16:18). That was not what Jesus saw! But with God in our lives, we can become more complete than we are without Him. The difference between our humanity and the holiness of God is God’s perfection. Psalm 18:30 tells us, “As for God, His way is perfect: The Lord’s Word is flawless.”
So what does being no-so-perfect look like in our walk with God?
NOT-SO PERFECT OBEDIENCE
Obedience does not make us perfect, it keeps us connected to Jesus, the perfector of our faith. God is truth: He makes no pretenses that He sees us – warts, wounds and all that limit our ability to obey Him completely. It’s like children who take a morsel of vegetables because the parent says so, and so that in theory, there is an act of obedience. But the intake is not enough to improve health. This is similar to our tokenistic acts of obedience.
Jesus took three of His closest friends and disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane when He faced the intensity of His own human emotions. When He told Peter, James and John, “Stay here and keep watch with Me”, He was telling them to pray for themselves (not for Him) so that they would be prepared for what was to come. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” But when the Lord checked on His friends, He found them sleeping – three times! (Matthew 26:36-45). To be sure, it was not because of exhaustion that Peter, James and John didn’t stay vigilant and pray but for the lack of urgency that caused them to be very present with Jesus.
This is the same as showing up in church but not being fully engaged because we are checking and responding to text messages, browsing online stores and not even taking sermon notes. Or like how we maintain sexual purity while keeping less-than-pure relationships with some people. True obedience leads to deep and lasting changes within us: Our children will see a gradual inward change in us (not what we say we are). Our employers will see a gradual difference in our performance and our ability to collaborate with others. Our friends will gradually see a person who is more present with them and not just someone who wants to be seen as being blameless. Our not-so-perfect obedience will gradually change us.
NOT-SO-PERFECT EMOTIONS
Let’s be honest: most of us are not very well acquainted with our emotions. Christians are often guilty of downplaying emotions. Tellingly, we are often caught off guard by their appearance. We respond by slapping a quick label saying they are positive or negative without actually finding out what they are trying to tell us.
Peter experienced this when Judas approached Jesus with a contingent of armed soldiers and temple guards assigned by the religious leaders. There had been an undercurrent of hostility towards Jesus and His followers that was hard to ignore. On top of that, Jesus had been saying things that were hard to make sense of. “In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me” (John 16:16). Peter had also just seen his dear friend exhibiting signs of great distress in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” (Matthew 26:36-38).
Like any of us, Peter must have felt helpless and indignant when outnumbered by the arresting party that appeared with Judas. In the midst of the great confusion, he instinctively “drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave” But instead of defending him, Jesus told him to withdraw his weapon because he had let his emotions interfere with the situation. (John 18:10-11, NLT).
If his emotions had not got in the way, Peter might have seen how incongruent it was for such a large number of soldiers to apprehend Jesus. He might have checked in with his mental recall of what Jesus had just told them earlier in the day, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” (Matthew 26:31).
Whether it is our overreaction or underreaction, for many of us, our emotional life is the least understood and least developed part of our being. Unable to understand it fully, we ignore our emotions, downplay its importance, suppress its growth and call it our enemy.
If Peter had learnt to sit with uncomfortable emotions longer instead of acting on them, ignoring them or denying that they existed, he might have learnt to be more in touch with his strong emotions and better able to see what they are telling him. It became clear to Jesus that Peter needed an emotional vocabulary that was lacking in their relationship: do you love Me?
In what ways are you getting to know your not-so-perfect emotions better so that when they emerge, you understand what they are trying to tell you?
NOT-SO PERFECT COMMITMENT
Peter’s lack of self-awareness was evident in how he lived: he was all about keeping up the appearance of looking strong and infallible. He saw things with a binary perspective – something is either good or bad, right or wrong, success or failure, us or them. Therefore, in his mind, because Jesus was important to him, he was sure that, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert You.” (Matthew 26:33). No one could say that Peter was lying but he had over-estimated his ability to withstand intense public scrutiny and real persecution, or to not cave in under great emotional stress.
The imperfection of human limits does not lessen our commitment to God, or disqualify us as followers of Jesus Christ. God does not terminate His calling on us even when we struggle to hold onto His promises, and He does not eliminate us from His purpose.
However, Peter might have assumed that his calling as a disciple ended by his very public and hurtful denials but that was not Jesus’ response to His friend’s misstep in their relationship.
Today, knowing who God is, gives us the confidence to do something about our missteps and mistakes instead of covering up our not-so-perfect response to Him. Here are three things to keep in mind:
1. KNOW THE HEART OF GOD
There are life-building benefits to committing Bible verses to memory. Psalm 103:1-13 gives us a good script for talking to God, emphasizing not on what we need from Him, but focused on who He is to us - individually. This is important because we tend to over-identify with our situations in life and we forget that God gives us a common humanity for connection, not comparison. He comforts the heartbroken, the lonely, the marginalized, the grieving and those who are quietly struggling to make ends meet with the same comfort that enables them to hold onto their faith. He sees us all in our struggles with great empathy from His throne of grace. (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Knowing the heart of God, we will also know…
2. GOD WILL NOT GIVE UP ON YOU!
When God looks at us, He does not see a widower, a never married person, a divorcee, a weary caregiver, a sick person, an empty nester or a past victim of domestic violence. Those could be our situational persona or profile but they are neither our identity nor our personhood. We are more than our mistakes and what we experience in life. Importantly, we must pay attention to the false conclusions that our minds tell us.
Jesus did not see Peter as a deserter and a failed disciple but as a beloved friend who needed a little help. Peter’s greatest weakness came from downplaying his humanity - something we commonly accept in ministry and in life. All he needed was to understand the limitations of his own humanity so that his response under pressure could be less extreme. Stop the dramatics already!
3. GOD WILL RESTORE YOU TO HIS PURPOSE
Peter knew he messed up big time the instant he heard a rooster crow. It was then that he “remembered the words Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 26:74-75). Failed as a disciple of Jesus Christ, he could pretend to go back to become a fisherman. But Jesus saw a human who was confused and trying to do the right things in the wrong ways. Jesus – our Master – does not change His mind about who we are to Him and what we are to become even when we fail to live up to His teachings and His Word.
1 John 1:9 tells us that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Writing in Romans 8:38-39 (MSG), the apostle Paul made it unequivocally clear: “I’m absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
After Peter’s hurtful denial, Jesus spoke directly with his friend – not to single him out to humiliate him but - to introduce a level of honesty and grace into their friendship that was novel to Peter. The Lord’s odd line of questioning set His friend free from shame and silence. (John 21:15-17). We should never be afraid of having awkward conversations with God because they keep us from withdrawing from Him. Go back to Adam and Eve when they withdrew from God after the Fall: God initiated a conversation with them with a very awkward question ‘Where are you?’ (Genesis 3:8-9).
Today, let’s be more aware of our not-so-perfect obedience, not-so-perfect emotions and not-so-perfect commitment to God and stop hiding our vulnerability behind situational personas. Let’s learn to be fully human and find the path of our meaning and purpose one day at a time.
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 25 October 2025.
