Jamin Bradley

If you’ve watched The Lord of the Rings but never read the books, allow me to introduce you to Tom Bombadil. I love how he’s pictured in season two of Rings of Power, where he’s a powerful but playful man, but admittedly, he drives me a bit nuts in the book, where he’s a powerful but aloof man who can never stop singing the most ridiculous songs.

But despite how he’s pictured, he certainly is intriguing. He seems to be the one person in all Middle-earth who is unaffected by the ring. Frodo is so mesmerized by the man that he willfully hands him the ring. Tom then plays with the heavy ring like it’s nothing, tries it on without being affected in any way, and playfully hands it back to Frodo.

Who is Tom in Tolkien’s universe? There are many theories, but no one really knows. The most we know is that he’s an ancient being who has been around since the earliest times of creation, and that is more or less the point I want to center on from here.

I think both Tom Bombadil’s strengths and weaknesses are perfect examples for us of John Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection. Wesley believed that with enough time, we could cultivate the fruit of the Spirit so fully in our lives that we could get to the place where we no longer sin intentionally. Such a lifestyle would be characteristic of five achievements:

1. Loving God with all our heart.
2. A heart and life all devoted to God.
3. Regaining the whole image of God.
4. Having all the mind that was in Christ.
5. Walking uniformly as Christ walked.

Aiming for Christian Perfection

Even if Tolkien didn’t mean to illustrate such a belief with the character of Tom Bombadil, I think he serves the point nonetheless. In the world of Middle-earth, there are many mighty physical/spiritual beings who can’t handle the ring. Gandalf is afraid it will be too tempting for him, while Sarumon has turned against God and hopes to find and use it. But Bombadil has been around the block a few more times than them. When tempted to sin, he does not. When offered great power, he does not care. He has already cultivated his life to look as God would hope it to, while the other wizards are still sorting it out for good or for bad.

But herein lies one of the dangers of achieving (if possible) Christian perfection. When removed long enough from sin, we can forget what it feels like to be entangled in it. After watching Tom play so casually with the ring that felt so heavy to him, Frodo “was perhaps a trifle annoyed with Tom for seeming to make so light of what even Gandalf thought so perilously important.” Likewise, though Gandalf recognized that the ring had no effect on Tom, he said that, “if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian…”

We’ve all seen this effect in Christianity before. For example, when I was helping to found JXN Harm Reduction, it was primarily Christians who had never struggled with drug use that were against our efforts to try to get into the messy middle to help addicts. These Christians did not struggle with drug addiction and, in a sense, had already achieved perfection on that issue. If an addict were to hand them a needle, they would not be tempted by it. While this is good for them, their “perfection” can make them unhelpful in the fight against addiction. They just don’t understand it.

A sinful pursuit of perfection makes us prideful, arrogant, and judgy. Looking at my own life, some of my most judgmental moments have been when I have felt the most confident in my own morality. A holy pursuit of perfection fills us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. But if we’re not careful, both a sinful pursuit and a holy pursuit can unplug us from a world struggling with sin. We must always look to untangle ourselves from the kingdom of darkness and then mercifully and graciously help others untangle as well.