I'm torn a bit with what I'm currently reading/studying regarding the Christian and holiness. To my tradition (Anabaptist/Brethren in Christ) this is a significant doctrine. I just received an e-mail from a publication yesterday regarding the lack of understanding of holiness in the American Church. I see a few issues with why that may be...
First, I'm not sure if there's an adequate understanding of what holiness actually is. My assumption would be many associate the doctrine with the generations past who viewed it as what we don't do because we're a Christian. So we don't dance, don't drink, don't smoke, don't do whatever. So holiness then becomes defined on what we're not instead of what we are.
Here is the crux. Do I want to define myself by what I'm not? If I do, it's a pretty big turnoff to Jesus, don't you think? So I'm not homosexual. I'm not a drunk. I'm not greedy (I try not to be). Etc. Get the idea? You've now just considered yourself better than all descriptions of people above. I'm thinking a better way to look at holiness is not by a standard of what we don't do, but rather by a mark of who we are, of character...and that character of Christ.
Being like God...like Jesus...is the basis for what holiness is. Jesus loved the poor, healed the sick, was patient with the ignorant (disciples), etc. True holiness is following the example of Jesus. It's being about what he was about for the sake of reflecting the character of God...becoming more and more like Jesus who was the perfect reflection of His father. It is therefore not about what we shouldn't do, but what we should be doing in obedience.
Are we afraid to talk this way in terms of obedience? There's a great tension in the Christian faith between grace and all out radical devotion to Jesus. Somewhere there's a great point in the farther right sort of the spectrum where we are wholly devoted to Christ but at the same time realize there is more than enough grace for our failures. Living the radically devoted life I believe is more life giving to a person that soaking up all the grace and just believing in a Jesus who constantly forgives. The greater Jesus is the one who transforms while sustaining us at the same time with that grace. Romans 6-8 is great in painting such a picture.
More to come on this. Next I want to look at the Spirit and Holiness...
