I grew up in a home and a Christian tradition where holiness was measured by external actions. And because you cannot measure every action, a few specific ones were selected to act as proxy for all the others.  Drinking (of alcohol), dancing (except, for some unknown reason, square dancing), listening to secular music (rock and roll only - some how classical music, big band, country and Nana Mouskouri were exempt...), smoking and wearing jeans (I kid you not) were all seriously taboo.  These were prohibited not just for their social and health problems, but because these were how we proved our piety and holiness.

'Holiness' is originally an Old Testament concept. Although the issue of purity is part of it, the primary meaning of 'holiness' is 'set aside for God's exclusive use.'  The implements in the temple, for example, were holy.  They were not holy because of any special qualities they possessed in themselves, but rather they were holy because they were set aside for use only in the Temple.

In the New Testament, the concept of holiness is used often.  The Old Testament command, "Be holy, because I am holy" is repeated.  Again, the concept is one of purity for a purpose.  The focus is actually on the PURPOSE.  The purity is simply a means to an end.  The end goal is to be used by God and for God.

The issue then of holiness is completely wrapped up in what I do FOR God. 

I grew up in a tradition that is so paranoid about "saved by faith, and not by works" that it has stripped out the heart of the concept of holiness.  I know many conservative evangelicals would protest at this, and argue that they too emphasize a life given over the God's use.  But, if I were to ask them what holiness "looks like", I'd get answers that might include:  meeting together with the saints, studying the Bible, prayer, repentance, communion and worship.  These are essential activities if we want to be holy.  For this, they would take me to Acts 2:42, and show me that this was the example and pattern of the early church.   But, why do they never mention the other parts of this "pattern"?  What about the miraculous signs and wonders of Acts 2:43?  And what about the income redistribution, the selling of your possessions and care for the poor of the next few verses of Acts 2?  Why are these never listed, or practiced by conservative evangelicals?

Maybe their response will be that holiness is about the "renewing of your mind", and not about the stuff you do.  For this, they would point me to Romans 12.  I agree.  But why stop reading at verse 3 of this great chapter?  You only need to read to Romans 12:6, to find what I am talking about.  The PURPOSE of the purity commanded in the first few verses is that we may be useful to God.  And, notice again that there are some gifts and ministries listed in this chapter that somehow fall right off of the traditional Christian's radar:  prophesying, contributing to the needs of others and showing mercy.

This brings me to a verse that is seriously overlooked.  Micah 6:8 is VERY clear about what God demands of us.  Why is this verse never listed amongst the verses quoted when conservative evangelicals talk about holiness and God's requirements for us?  "He has showed you, people, what is good and what the LORD requires of you:  to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.".  We are to DO JUSTICE.  In the Bible, justice is almost ALWAYS linked to economics!!  We are to love mercy, to extend grace to sinners and those beaten and downtrodden by sin and insitutional evil.  And, lastly on this list, we are to be pure.  Purity for a purpose.

If you think there is a verse of Scripture that I might not have taken into account, I'd love to hear from you.  I'd love to see a verse of Scripture that says that being pure for purity's sake is what God is after.  But be warned - before you send me that verse, please check the context and do a proper exegesis of it.  Because that is what I will be doing, and I am certain that we will discover that purity always has a purpose of getting involved in God's work in God's world to free all of His creation and creatures from the damage that evil has brought.  So, for example, if you would feel the need to quote 2 Corinthians 6:17, then please keep reading 2 Corinthians 7, 8 and 9.  7:1 shows clearly that Paul's thoughts flow from the issue of being apart, and he then praises the Corinthians for their works, their giving, the fact that they were keen to "see justice done" (7:11), and he goes further in 8:7 to ensure that they know that the activities that so many evangelicals pride themselves in - faith, knowledge, earnestness - must be supplemented by generous giving to those in financial need, and a sharing of financial resources (8:14) and equality.  So, you show me one verse:  2 Cor 6:17.  I show you THREE CHAPTERS in response!!

I am getting a bit steamed up here.  But I am tired of being on the receiving end of criticisms and downright rudeness from fellow Christians.  Many conservative evangelicals say that those of us in the emerging church who feel that Christ's Way must make more of a difference to every part of our lives than it has done in the past, are somehow subverting the truth, walking away from the true Gospel and are a danger to the church.  I just finished reading John MacArthur's "The Truth War".  I will be responding to it on this blog over the next few weeks.  But I am tired of being treated as the one who is subverting the Gospel.  I say that it is those traditional, conservative evangelicals who are telling only HALF the truth who are weakening the Gospel.  They claim to be the ones standing true to God's Word, yet they skip over verses and conveniently explain away everything that doesn't fit into their right wing world view. 

The message of purity is not wrong.  It is just a half truth.  And a half truth is as bad as (or maybe even worse than) an outright lie.  We must be pure.  But purity has a purpose.

As I have said recently on this blog, church is not a warehouse for the saints - a place where they can be kept in storage, free from rust, dust, rot & spoilage, and locked away until their rightful owner comes to collect them and ship them off somewhere else.  The purpose of our holiness is NOT so that we can be kept apart from the world in some shiny bubble.  No, holiness has a purpose.  That purpose is deep engagement with the world, in order to assist God in His plan of redemption of the world.  If you'd like to read and listen to a sermon I preached on this recently, check out:  What we are saved from and what we are saved for.

Hey Graeme,

Great post! I'm also discovering this more and more : that the purpose of the Christian life is NOT to avoid sin, but simply to ADVANCE THE KINGDOM -- which, as we know, is done through LOVE (which means, that you won't sin) and love needs ACTION which means we ought to be involved in justice and mercy to others, and into transforming our world and engaging all levels of all culture to transform it into Kingdom.

Note : I don't mean we impose one culture over another culture, I mean we place Kingdom culture (a culture of love) within and over other cultures, so that it can dispose of what is negative and not beneficial in the culture and keep what is positive-- which is what Kingdom usually does.

There is a great book by Darrow L. Miller called "Discipling the Nations" where he looks at what a Kingdom culture and mindset does to a nation's economy and justice... how it transforms nations as it has in the past (Europe as opposed to India and other non-christian influenced cultures.)

It's pretty amazing to see how the Kingdom truly transforms nations.

I'm getting sidetracked here : but I agree with you. To simply avoid sin and not sin for not sinning's sake is an unloving act and-- dare I say-- hardly holy or godly. It almost has no real point. This is why-- from a theological perspective-- I believe that once you're saved you're saved. The minute you need to 'prove' your salvation with works you are doing works for selfish ends, and not for truly loving ends.

Many fundamentalist evangelicals are SO concerned about sin that they've made the point of the Christian life simply sin avoidance. This has done nothing but simply imposed laws on their people (don't do this, do this and this) which is exactly what the Bible speaks so vehemently against. I also think it has paralyzed many Christians, so that they don't actually DO anything with their lives because they're continously waiting for the day when they will finally be 'perfect.' Now, I hardly see Jesus or any of the Apostles making their goal in life sin avoidance. In fact, their goal in life (and the church's) was to advance the kingdom and that was that. It seems to me that they knew sanctification would happen through this process, and God would take care of the details. We are to focus on advancing the kingdom, not on our sins or avoiding sins... because, when we just focus on our sins, we impose law on ourselves and on others and we are not under law but under grace!

Not to plug my blog here (I generally don't enjoy shameless plugs) but I wrote something similar which you might enjoy : http://ryanpeterblogs.wordpress.com/...

Sooo... I think those who are teaching the point of the Christian life being one of continued striving for holiness have not only lost the plot, but they're actually missing what is real holiness and godliness... to truly love others through true action... which you have also said...

The only thing I would add is we should never get involved in justice and mercy for the sake of justice and mercy (that is also self-serving) because I've seen too many people then get involved with pointless social reforms. We need to know exactly WHAT we need to change and WHEN, otherwise it can get confusing. We need to know when 'rights' (which are usually a good cause) are imposing on morality (which now makes the good cause bad.) I don't think we'll do this without the Spirit.

We need to be spirit-led, relationally driven, Kingdom thinking (considering the future outcome of what we are standing up for.) Otherwise, we may end up losing what true 'justice' really us and get mixed up in all sorts of political waste of times.

Later man,
Ryan

Posted by: RyanStray 02 Jul, 2007 - 12:17:03

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