Christian Perfection

Definition and Meaning

Christian perfection is the teaching that believers can, before death and in this present life, overcome sin and come to love God and neighbor with all their heart. It is also called entire sanctification or perfect love. It was systematized by the eighteenth-century English cleric John Wesley and is regarded as one of the central tenets of Wesleyan theology.

The perfection Wesley described is not an absolute perfection that excludes all mistakes or all ignorance. He held that ignorance, mistakes, infirmities, and temptation remain as long as one lives in this world. The perfection he taught is a state of freedom from willful, knowing sin, in which love governs the heart. This state is described as a gift of grace received by faith, involving both an instantaneous experience and a gradual growth that precedes and follows it.

Biblical and Historical Background

The doctrine rests chiefly on the following passages:

• Matthew 5:48: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
• Hebrews 6:1: "Let us go on unto perfection."
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23

Wesley addressed this subject in "The Circumcision of the Heart," a sermon preached at Oxford in 1733. In 1766 he set out his views systematically in A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. The nineteenth-century American Holiness movement emphasized this teaching as a "second work of grace" experienced after regeneration, and this current of thought reached Korea through missionary work.

The Reformed tradition, by contrast, holds that sanctification is not completed in this life. Chapter 13 of the Westminster Confession of Faith confesses that sanctification is imperfect in this life and that remnants of corruption remain. Lutheranism likewise regards the believer as simultaneously righteous and a sinner.

Practice in Korean Churches

• Holiness churches: The Korea Evangelical Holiness Church and the Jesus Korea Holiness Church proclaim the Fourfold Gospel of regeneration, holiness, divine healing, and the Second Coming. Of these, holiness corresponds to Christian perfection, and this emphasis is reflected in the denominations' very names. The Korea Church of the Nazarene also holds entire sanctification as a central doctrine.
• Methodist churches: The Korean Methodist Church stands in the Wesleyan tradition. However, rather than stressing an instantaneous experience as strongly as the Holiness churches do, it often speaks of the process of sanctification alongside social holiness.
• Presbyterian churches: Presbyterian churches in the Calvinist tradition do not accept entire sanctification. They teach that sanctification is a gradual, lifelong process and hold that perfection is realized only in glorification, following the resurrection.

In interdenominational dialogue, the term "perfection" is often misunderstood to mean a sinless state. The Wesleyan tradition explains it as "perfection in love."