Category Archives: Holiness

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders

3 Replies

I’ve been disappointed with some of my fellow Christians the last few days. For a few, priority number one after the Newtown tragedy was the need to stave off any attempts to limit their “right to bear arms.” Paul Smith wrote an article yesterday that voices some of my disappointment: A New American Idol – The Second Amendment.

I’ve also been a bit disappointed with myself. Some of my comments haven’t reflected Kingdom values, either.

Others are listening. And watching. At this time, I don’t want to be known as one who speaks up against guns, nor as one who defends their use. I’d much rather be known as someone who speaks about God, His Kingdom, and the lifestyle that citizens of that Kingdom should live.

May I speak the language of the New Jerusalem, rather than the language of Meshech and Kedar.

Stanley Hauerwas is said to have remarked, “I tell everyone I’m a pacifist so that other people will prevent me from killing some ___ one day.” (Hauerwas apparently feels freer than I to use coarse language) I write posts like this to remind myself, and give others the freedom to remind me, what I need to be focused on.

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:5-6)

photo taken from MorgueFile.com

Moving toward holiness

14 Replies

Yesterday I talked about the concept of the pursuit of holiness. I think that “pursuit” is a good word to use in this case, for two reasons:

(1) 100% holiness will not be achieved through our efforts. As long as we are in the flesh, we won’t be purely holy. All we can do is pursue it.

(2 The idea of movement needs to be included. Let me illustrate why, using an illustration inspired by a recording I heard of a Jeff Walling presentation at the Tulsa Workshop.

First, let’s lay out a continuum, with immorality and holiness as the two endpoints:

Then let’s place two markers on the continuum, one representing the world and one representing the church:

Typically, what the church seeks to do is to use the world as a reference, then seek to be a little bit holier than the world. Our holiness comes to be defined by what we don’t do. (Like the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18) As we resist the influences of the world, we take our stand just to one side of it.

But what happens when the world moves?

The church tends to move with it. I could give myriad examples, but surely we know it’s true. It happens with bad things… and even with good things. In many ways, the world moved ahead of the church in the area of civil rights, for example. The current emphasis on social justice arose from humanists, then spread to the church.

The point is, we can’t just seek to maintain the status quo. That’s next to impossible. We need to be actively moving toward holiness, seeking the fruit of the Spirit, imitating Christ, pursuing godliness. If not, we’ll slowly drift along with the world, maybe not as far, but drifting all the same.

The pursuit of holiness

4 Replies

Regarding what we discussed yesterday about good and evil, I think that a big problem that Christians have is that they have no sense of the need to pursue holiness. Part of that goes back to something I referred to before, the transactional view of God. That is, people only see their relationship with God in terms of what they can get from Him, the primary “good” to be gotten being salvation. All that matters is whether or not your are saved or lost, according to this view. Therefore, the only concern about sin is whether or not it will “keep us out of heaven” or not.

It’s that viewpoint, for example, that fears teaching about grace. If people are only focused on doing enough to get saved, then any teaching about grace will remove their motivation for doing what’s right. You’ve got to preach fire and brimstone, or people will become complacent.

The New Testament, of course, teaches that grace motivates us to work all that much harder. Because of the grace we’ve received, we pursue holiness. Even as we acknowledge that we will never be perfect, we imitate He that is perfect, becoming holier in the process.

With that sort of view, we begin to look at right and wrong in a different way.That’s where a study of the Old Testament concept of holiness becomes helpful. We choose to do things not only because they are prescribed or proscribed but because they reflect the nature of God. Admittedly, it’s an advanced way of thinking, one that’s not easy to teach to children, for example. But as we mature, I think we have to start looking at things in terms of holiness.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1Peter 1:13-16)