The Quest for Perfection

It seems that everyone searches for perfection. Whether it be the perfect body, the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect family, etc. But the quest for perfection is never-ending. It seems that at the moment you achieve “perfection” in one area of your life, another area is lacking and the cycle continues on. Many feel as though perfection is the way to gain happiness. In Matthew 5:48 it even says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” So shouldn’t we be striving for perfection?

In my Humanities class today we were talking about the great philosopher Aristotle. He believed that happiness could be achieved when one reached the end product. For example, an architect finds happiness or good, in a completed house. The word for this end is the Greek word telos. It also means function, full potential, or full function. My professor said that the word telos is found in the New Testament and in the exact verse I mentioned above. With the new definition, the verse in Matthew takes on a whole new meaning. All we need to do is strive to reach our full potential. Perfection is impossible, so why waste our time trying to reach it? It is much more productive to try for our own personal best.