Christian Perfection       Put the Method back into the Methodist Church

Christian perfection is about love, and not about being perfect like one who does not need an eraser on the end of his pencil.   Christian perfection is the first and great commandment.

 

A Methodist class meeting leader described Christian Perfection as:

 

The doctrine of experimental holiness has been taken as distinctive of Methodism, under the term "Christian perfection," in accordance with an earnestly and repeatedly-expressed desire  for the Corinthian believers, ''and this we also wish, even your perfection;" your perfect restoration to harmony as a church as the result of your individual purity and mature conformity to Christ.  This perfection as believed in by the Methodists is not absolute perfection, that belongs to God only, but Christian perfection- full salvation from sin.  It is not such a perfection as places the Christian beyond the possibility of mistake, or misunderstanding, or misjudgment, or forgetfulness, or any mere infirmity of our mortal nature which may bring trials after it, though not necessarily involving condemnation; but it is perfect sincerity, guilelessness of soul, after the example of him whom the Heart Searcher called "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."   No guile as to God, always willing to be open to His view; no guile as to our neighbor, a conscious freedom from all evil, in thought, word, or deed, towards him: no guile as to self, no wish to think of oneself other than God thinks.  This perfection is not one which renders the atonement no longer necessary,...but it is rather the perfection of faith....

             Christophers, S.W. Class-meetings in Relation to the Design and Success of Methodism,

                            London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1873

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