Scrupulosity and One Distortion of Sanctification

By: Andrea Lee

• January 27, 2025
• Anxiety, Assurance of Salvation, Fear, OCD, Perfectionism, Religious Scrupulosity

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“When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints” (Ps. 77:3). Those who struggle with scrupulosity can deeply resonate with this verse, along with others from Psalm 77, like, “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” (Ps. 77:7-9). People who struggle with scrupulosity often feel far from God. They also feel unknown and isolated from others because the nature of their thoughts keeps them from sharing their inner world or keeps them so anxious that making and strengthening relationships seems too burdensome.

The world knows scrupulosity as a subset of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that focuses on religious and moral content. Sufferers are “paralyzed by obsessive doubts and worries about their spiritual and moral lives.”[1]_They_doubt_their_salvation,_they_hyper-analyze_their_thoughts,_words,_and_behavior_to_see_if_they_have_sinned,_and_they_ruminate_for_hours,_trying_to_gain_clarity_on_their_relationship_to_God_and_their_spiritual_progress._The_anxiety_that_accompanies_this_mental_activity_is_severe._Women_I’ve_counseled_have_had_seasons_when_sleeping_and_eating_felt_impossible,_and_suicide_seemed_like_a_good_way_out_of_the_pain.[2]

In the midst of this suffering, there is hope. God helps us to look at the assumptions, beliefs, and interpretations behind the anxiety and to see the antidote in His Word. There are common heart themes to explore, like the craving for certainty, control, perfection, and the consuming burdens of guilt, self-atonement, and fear of man.[3] But these ruling desires are tricky to tackle because of the distortions feeding them.

As I have worked with women who struggle with scrupulosity, Michael Emlet’s article, Scrupulosity: When Doubts Devour, has been invaluable. His wisdom, compassion, and practical suggestions have guided conversation after conversation. One section of his article highlights how distortions regarding God, self, Scripture, and the Christian life amplify the anxious, sticky thoughts that plague those with scrupulosity. Counselors must target the underlying distortions to gain traction.

In this article, I’ll discuss a few ways perfectionism impacts the struggle with scrupulosity, and I’ll give some ideas on how to address the heart of the person who believes peace comes from some form of perfection.

First, let’s look at the link between perfectionism and anxious, intrusive thoughts. The heart of the scrupulous person craves certainty—absolute, complete, total certainty about spiritual things. Their mind constantly confronts them with doubts about how pure, genuine, or thorough a specific act or thought was. Their reasoning might go like this:If I could be certain that I prayed with full contrition or obeyed with my whole heart or worshipped fully, then I could have peace. It feels like having certainty about their performance would relieve the anxiety. But God, in His kindness, has not given us the types of certainty that the scrupulous person craves. We don’t have indicator lights on our foreheads that show if we sinned, how much we sinned, how much we wanted to sin, how displeased God is, how long the anxious feelings will last, or where we are in our spiritual progress.

Since this type of certainty isn’t available, the scrupulous person then focuses more on control. They might think: If I can control my thoughts AND my spiritual “performance” AND my obedience, then the anxiety will decrease. The assumption is that perfect spiritual effort will control the sticky thoughts, and if the sticky thoughts can be controlled, so can the anxiety. But this is another trap of perfectionism. Being perfect isn’t the way to control anxiety; trusting God is.

So here are some ways the perfectionist distortions could sound, along with some ways to address them. God often brings about change when biblical truth is applied in the context of the particular anxiety-producing distortion.

• Perfectionistic distortion: “Perfect obedience is not only possible, it’s mandatory for any sense of peace.” OR “The only way an act of obedience is valid is if it’s perfect.” (A good question to ask the scrupulous person would be: how do you define “perfect” obedience? For example, they may define it in terms of emotions. Were they full of joy/gratitude/peace as they obeyed? Did they want to obey with their whole heart? They take a small part of the picture and make it the whole picture.)
  • Biblical responses that counteract the distortion:
    • Perfect obedience is not required for assurance of salvation. When God saves us, He immediately frees us from the penalty of our sin and from the enslaving power of sin over us. But our complete freedom from the presence of sin will happen when we are glorified.[4] (See Phil. 2:12-13, 3:12-16 and Mark 4:26-28.)
    • Sanctification is called progressive because it’s a slow, gradual process that occurs over the course of your whole life. What you do in response to your sin is key. God certainly desires our growth in holiness and obedience—and helping us cling to His grace when we sin is part of that process. When we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who alone is perfectly righteous (1 John 2:1).
    • Genuine obedience is possible. Perfect obedience isn’t. Christ’s righteousness is sufficient to atone for your sin before and after salvation. You don’t switch over to depending on your “righteousness” once you’re saved (Gal. 3:3). God calls you to be completely sanctified, and HE will surely do it (1 Thess. 5:23-24).
• Perfectionistic distortion: “I must have perfect emotions (I must be overflowing with gratitude, praise, trust, and worship) 100% of the time.” OR “If I don’t have delight in God, I must not be a Christian. Thoughts about God often frighten me, and genuine believers aren’t scared when they think of God. So I must not be saved.”)
  • Biblical responses that counteract the distortion:
    • The presence of the Psalms of lament, and especially Psalm 88, should encourage you. In Psalm 88, God the Spirit inspired Heman the Ezrahite to write a poem that would be sung, memorized, recited, and prayed that has no vibrant, positive emotion. He talked to God about his misery. And that in itself was a victory. Our creatureliness, the reality of the fallenness of our bodies and our world, and the continued presence of sin means that our emotions will not be one unbroken experience of delighting in God at the highest pitch.
    • In the Bible, God often compares the regenerate person to a tree, like in Psalm 1. Trees can be alive, connected to the river of living water, but not have outward fruit *for a season.*Trees bear fruit—in season. There are times when the fruit of your dependence on God will not be visible in the ways you have determined are most important.
• Perfectionistic distortion: “I need to perfectly control my thoughts. The fact that I have a weird thought (a doubt about God’s character, a blasphemous thought, an unwanted/uncultivated sexual thought) must mean I’m not a Christian or that I’m walking away from God.”
  • Biblical responses that counteract the distortion:
    • If perfection is the standard, ANY aberrant thought will be overvalued and assigned the power to determine your standing with God. In the struggle with scrupulosity, these thoughts must be seen as a temptation to doubt God’s grace, not as the real problem. Are you imagining that the presence of this thought determines your standing with God? Or will you cling to God’s promises that no matter how weird the thought, you can draw near to God with faith-filled prayers that voice your confusion about why you have these thoughts, along with the confidence that your status with God is secure because of Jesus?
• Perfectionistic distortion: “I must obey the law of God perfectly so that I show love to God. But maybe I’m relying on my works to save me if I’m so focused on keeping the law. Maybe I don’t understand grace, and if I don’t understand grace, then I’m not saved.” OR “If I don’t have good works, maybe I’m not saved. But if I see good works in my life, maybe I’m relying on them instead of Christ.”
  • Biblical responses that counteract the distortion:
    • Although understanding grace and relying on the work of Christ alone for salvation are important, they are not the actual problem here. The real issue is learning to trust God when you don’t have a feeling of certainty, when you aren’t “perfect,” when your feelings don’t match the standard you have made in your mind. You are trusting that your justification is complete while your sanctification is ongoing.
    • This thought pattern still reveals that it seems like your spiritual destiny is controlled by you. You want to know for certain if you perfectly, thoroughly, deeply understand grace. Believers grow in their understanding of God’s grace as God sanctifies them. Paul said God chose him and saved him so he could be an example of God’s perfect patience (1 Tim. 1:15). God is patient with those who don’t fully grasp His grace but are genuinely clinging to Him since He alone has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). See also Rom. 9:16, John 6:44.

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The suffering involved with scrupulosity is heart-wrenching to experience and to witness. It’s an issue that takes patience to untangle. But God has given us powerful ways to address the distortions that fuel the scrupulous cycle of anxiety. By the power of the Spirit, our counselees can identify the ways they are clinging to distortions about God or themselves and begin resting in His grace.

Questions for Reflection

1. What distortions do you most frequently see when helping those with scrupulosity?
2. What passages of Scripture have been most helpful to you in this struggle?

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[1] Michael Emlet, Scrupulosity: When Doubts Devour, Journal of Biblical Counseling 33:3 (2019), 12.

[2] If you are thinking of taking your life, please call your pastor, a parent, or a spiritually mature friend or 911 or 988 (Suicide and Crisis Helpline). Anxiety can produce profound hopeless. You will be honoring God by reaching out to others for help.

[3] See Michael Emlet’s mini-book, OCD: Freedom for the Obsessive Compulsive (Philipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2004), 10-14.

[4] Jen Wilkin, “How Salvation Brings Freedom,” The Gospel Coalition, March 10, 2015 https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-salvation-brings-freedom/ (accessed 1/10/2025).