Bible verses about "perfectionism" | Sawyer

¹⁵ For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

^{1 (1:5)} Laying aside therefore all malice and all deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, ² as new born babes desire earnestly the pure milk of the word, that you may grow by it to salvation, ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. ⁴ To whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed by men but approved by God, elect, precious, ⁵ do you also yourselves be built up living stones, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ, ⁶ for it is said in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious, and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed. ⁷ To you therefore who believe he is precious; but to the disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of a corner ⁸ and a stone of stumbling and rock of offense, who stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. ⁹ But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should declare the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light; ¹⁰ who formerly were not a people, but now are a people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. ^{11 (2:1)} BELOVED, I exhort you as strangers and foreigners, abstain from carnal desires, which war against the soul, ¹² having your conduct honorable among the gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, from the good works which they see they may glorify God in the day of visitation, ^{13 (2:2)} Be subject therefore to every human government, for the Lord's sake, whether to the king, as superior, ¹⁴ to governors, sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those who do well; ¹⁵ for this is the will of God, that by well-doing you may silence the ignorance of foolish men; ¹⁶ as free, and not using freedom for a cloak of vice, but as servants of God. ¹⁷ Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. ^{18 (2:3)} Let servants be subject with all fear to masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the perverse. ¹⁹ For this deserves thanks, if on account of a knowledge of God one endures pain, suffering unjustly. ²⁰ For what glory is it if when you sin and are punished you bear it patiently? But if you do well and suffer and bear it patiently, [this deserves thanks], for it is acceptable to God. ²¹ For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you a copy that you should follow his steps, ²² who committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth, ²³ who being reviled reviled not, suffering threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously, ²⁴ who himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we having died to sins, may live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. ²⁵ For you were like lost sheep, but are now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

¹⁵ And he said to them, You are they that justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts; for that which is high among men is an abomination before God.

^{1 (1:4)} And when I came to you, brothers, I came not with excellency of speech, or wisdom, declaring to you the mystery of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ And I was with you in weakness, and with fear and with much trembling, ⁴ and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the spirit and power, ⁵ that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. ^{6 (1:5)} But we speak wisdom among the perfect, but not the wisdom of this life, nor of the rulers of this life, who are destroyed; ⁷ but we speak a wisdom of God hid in mystery, which God appointed from eternity for our glory, ⁸ which none of the rulers of this life knew, for if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; ⁹ but as it is written, An eye has not seen, an ear has not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those that love him; ¹⁰ but God has revealed them to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who knows the [things] of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? So also no one knows the [things] of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² And we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things given us by God, ¹³ which we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man receives not the [things] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, for they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But the spiritual man discerns all things, and is himself perceived by no one. ¹⁶ For who has known the mind of the Lord, who shall instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

³ Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit do you now end in the flesh?

² For in many things we all offend; if one offends not in word he is a perfect man, able to keep in subjection also the whole body.

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

¹² Not that I have already obtained it, or have been already made perfect; but I follow on that I may attain that for which also I was arrested by Christ. ¹³ I consider not myself, brothers, to have attained it; but this one thing I do; forgetting the things behind, and reaching forward to those before, ¹⁴ I press forward to the mark for the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus.

^{1 (6:1)} THERE is no condemnation therefore to those in Christ Jesus; ² for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, God having sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned the sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous ordinance of the law may be performed by us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. ⁵ For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit; ⁶ for the minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ Because the minding of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God; for it can not be. ⁸ And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if any man has not the spirit of Christ he is not his. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the spirit is life on account of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised Christ from the dead shall make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you. ^{12 (6:2)} Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die; but if by the spirit you kill the deeds of the body, you shall live. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you received not the spirit of servitude again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry; Abba, Father. ¹⁶ The Spirit itself is a co-witness with our spirits that we are children of God. ¹⁷ And if children, [we are] also heirs, heirs indeed of God and co-heirs with Christ, if we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him. ^{18 (6:3)} For I think that the sufferings of the present time are of no account in comparison with the glory to be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to a perishable condition, not willingly, but by him that subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the same creation will be delivered from the servitude of destruction and [brought] into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. ²² For we know that all the creation groans and is in pain till now; ²³ and not only it, but we ourselves also who have the first fruit of the Spirit, even ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For we are saved by hope; but a hope that is seen is not a hope; for why does one hope for what he sees? ²⁵ but if we hope for what we see not, we wait for it with patience. ^{26 (6:4)} And in like manner also the Spirit helps our weakness. For we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings unutterable; ²⁷ and he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because it makes intercession with God for the saints. ²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [his] purpose. ²⁹ For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he may be a first-born among many brothers; ³⁰ and whom he predestinated them he also called; and whom he called them he also justified; and whom he justified them he also glorified. ^{31 (6:5)} What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who spared not his Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God that justifies; ³⁴ who is he that condemns? Is it Christ who died, and still more, who has also been raised, and who is on the right hand of God, and who makes intercession for us? ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall affliction or distress, persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? ³⁶ As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day; we are accounted as sheep for slaughter. ³⁷ But in all these things we more than conquer, through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁸ If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹ And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in weakness. ¹⁰ Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore I am well pleased with infirmities, with injuries, with necessities, with persecutions, with distresses for Christ; for when I am weak, then am I strong.