Reflections with Andy - 1 John 2: 1-6 – Christian Perfection

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 yourself. That’s what holiness looks like. And it’s why the means of grace — Scripture, prayer, communion, fasting, community — matter so much: they are the channels through which that love grows and changes us.

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Good morning! Great to be with you on this Wednesday as we continue through First John together. I’m really enjoying this letter — it’s short, but there is just so much good stuff packed into it. And honestly, the few letters we’re going to walk through together after this are the same way.

Today we’re in First John chapter 2, verses 1 through 6:

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, ‘I have come to know him,’ but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ‘I abide in him,’ ought to walk just as he walked.”

Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the new commandment — the one John says those who love Jesus keep — so we’ll unpack what that commandment actually is then. Spoiler alert: it’s love. But today’s passage sets us up beautifully for that conversation, and it also gives us a chance to dig into something I find really fascinating — so consider this Methodist Seminary Day.

First, notice the tension John keeps holding together. He says, I’m writing this so that you may not sin — but then immediately: if anyone does sin, we have an advocate. And remember, just last chapter he said if we say we have no sin, we make him a liar. So there’s this constant, honest motion throughout First John: you’re going to sin, and when you do, Christ has atoned for it, so confess it and receive forgiveness. John doesn’t pretend sin isn’t real, and he doesn’t use grace as an excuse to be casual about it either. Both things are true at once.

But then he says this — and this is the line I want to sit with today: whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection.

That word perfection is a big deal in the Wesleyan tradition. When I was ordained — and I just realized this annual conference will mark twenty years since I was ordained on June 13th, 2006, so that’s something — one of the questions asked of every candidate is: do you believe in Christian perfection, and do you expect to be made perfect in this life? That is a defining doctrine of the Wesleyan movement, tied closely to sanctification and Christian growth.

And I think a lot of people — myself included, when I was younger — misunderstand what that actually means. I grew up somewhere along the way internalizing that holiness was basically a legalistic checklist. Don’t play cards because cards are for gambling. Don’t go to the movies. Don’t listen to secular music. To be holy, in that framework, meant performing a kind of moral perfection — getting it all right, checking all the right boxes, avoiding all the wrong things. Maybe you grew up with some version of that too.

But that is not what Scripture is teaching here. And it’s not what Wesley meant either.

Look at the verse again: truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. Christian perfection — holiness, sanctification — is never about my perfect action. It’s not about me performing flawlessly or never getting it wrong. That’s not the goal. The goal is God’s perfect love being shed into my heart, and then that love within me allowing me to love God and love others fully. That’s what perfection looks like in our theology.

My seminary professor Dr. Bryan used to put it this way: the salvific goal — the very purpose of our salvation — is the recovery of the image of God. When God’s image is being restored in us through sanctifying grace, it enables us to keep the greatest commandment: love God with everything you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is the point. That is what we’re being saved for. Not moral perfection. Perfect love.

There’s a great song by Matt Maher — the chorus goes: holiness is Christ in me. That’s it. That’s exactly it. Holiness isn’t me getting everything right. It’s Christ in me, God’s love growing and changing me from the inside, pushing me toward love of God and love of neighbor.

And that’s why the means of grace matter so much in the Wesleyan tradition — Scripture, prayer, communion, fasting, worship, Christian community. We need these things because they are the channels through which grace flows and does its work in us. As we read God’s word, grace is given. As we pray, as we fast, as we gather — we are being changed. We are being made more perfect, not through our effort, but through grace.

Wesley talked about social holiness — and this is what he meant. We can’t become holy in isolation. You help make me holy, and I help make you holy. We need each other. Love God, love neighbor — you can’t do that alone.

So if you want Methodist doctrine in a nutshell, there it is: holiness is God’s love shed abroad in our hearts, pushing us not toward perfect behavior but toward perfect love. And when we love perfectly — love God fully, love neighbor fully — we are living right at the center of who God made us to be.

Tomorrow we’ll pick up with the rest of chapter 2. Have a great day!