Grace and Perfection

I had a new thought the other day about grace. We often hear it defined as "unmerited favor," and that's not too bad a way to encapsulate its meaning, though it does cause me some inward nerdy moments. (If something must be specified as "unmerited favor," does this mean "merited" is an expected connotation of the word "favor"; surely not?) So to me this is a quickie definition for ease in grasping the concept, especially in reference to salvation by grace, but not one I'm willing to settle on. 

For one thing, grace also has a power component. Paul wrote, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV). Though that's the verse I know best, there are others that put a slightly different spin on grace. For example, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8 NKJV). Here, grace has a supply component. Similar is 1 Corinthians 15:10--"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was within me." These verses credit grace as a force or equipping that increases one's capacity to act or to bear up under something. As if God extends an extra ability for moments when we need it.

After scratching around in my notebook (concerning this and related words such as favor and mercy), here is my current definition: 

Grace: kind allowance or empowerment, free and unearned, extended to another to accommodate, mitigate, or cover their human limitations, without shaming, judging, or calling them out.

But now, to get around to that new thought I had the other day, which is that grace and perfectionism are pretty close opposites. I'm not sure I'd thought of those two qualities or standards as an opposing pair before. If I give grace, am I not sending the message that I don't demand perfectionism? If God gives grace, isn't He saying He knows we can't do anything on our own (much less do it perfectly) without His supply?

When we bestow grace, we bear with one another in love, cover over a multitude of sins (not sweep them under the carpet but forgive them)--in other words, come much closer to loving our neighbor as ourselves. And to loving ourselves. For ourselves or our loved ones who may suffer from perfectionistic tendencies, the best antidote may be grace.