Andy Talks

In this Wednesday reflection on 1 John 2:1–6, the phrase "the love of God has reached perfection" becomes a springboard for a pastoral tour through one of Methodism's most distinctive — and most misunderstood — doctrines: Christian perfection. The passage holds the same honest tension as the previous chapter: we are going to sin, Christ has atoned for it, and we have an advocate. But the deeper question is what perfection actually means. The reflection pushes back against the common assumption that holiness is a legalistic checklist of moral performance — don't play cards, don't see movies, don't listen to secular music — and argues instead that Christian perfection, in the Wesleyan sense, is never about perfect action but about God's perfect love being restored in us through sanctifying grace. The goal of salvation, as Wesley understood it, is the recovery of the image of God — which enables us to keep the greatest commandment: love God fully and love your neighbor as yours