Holiness

Last night a friend and I were looking up Bible verses for a Bible study that he’s leading tonight. His topic was “The Fear of God, and Holiness”. It was very fun to look up all these verses that show that a Christian is supposed to fear (revere) God and that the result of that reverence will be holiness.

Holy has been my favorite description of God for a few years now. Ever since Bible school I noticed that my heart is most worshipful when it realizes the holiness of God. Really, God is the only being in the universe that is 100% holy. Holiness is the essence of God, whether we realize it or not. Holiness is the nature of God, which means that He can’t be anything else. To be unholy is impossible for God. It took me a little while to really understand the extent of holiness being the nature of God. Finally, I found an illustration that was able to help me understand. I thought, “A bird breathes air. It’s in its nature to do so. It is against the nature of a bird to live underwater. It’s just not possible. No matter what, when, or where a bird will never be able to live under water.” It’s the same with God. He’ll never be unholy because it’s just not possible.

I’ve been reading a book called God’s Generals II. It’s the biographies of six of the great Reformers back in the 15th through 16th centuries (or something like that). This book tells about the lives of John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and George Fox (that’s a lot of Johns…must be an important name). These men stood up against the Catholic Church and the heresies that were ruling the church at that time. The Catholic Church at that time were teaching that God is a judging and unloving God. They taught that the people had to work off or buy off their debt to God if they wanted to make it into Heaven. They were taught that if they wanted to get Jesus’ attention they had to get either Jesus’ mother or grandmother to talk to Him for them, hence praying to Mary and other saints. The church was in bondage to religion. The Great Reformation was the best thing that ever happened to the church. Now we can read the Bible freely (that was illegal in those days), we are free to study and interpret the Bible, and we are free to pray to God/Jesus directly. We know now that it’s either Heaven or Hell and that there’s no purgatory in between. We are FREE!

Yes, free. But are some people in the church perhaps TOO free? I’ve learned lately that we are so free that we don’t have to worry about repenting to God because we are always living under His grace…once saved always saved. I’ve learned that we are so free that we don’t have to be judged by other people for our actions (meaning that all accountability is removed)…after all, Romans 8:1 says “there is therefore now no condemnation…” I’ve learned that we have such a loving God that He couldn’t possibly throw us into Hell just because our opinion is different from what the Bible says…besides, the Bible was written for the people of those days…things are different now what with all of our great knowledge of science, medicine, and life. Because all of these things are different I am free…free to use whichever selection of words that I’d like to use in order to express my feelings (doesn’t matter if it’s constituted as dirty language). I’m free to go on vacation for two weeks with my boyfriend or girlfriend and share a hotel room with them because God knows that I really love that person with all of my heart. I’m free to interpret the Scripture to suit my fancy because it is after all God’s Word, and a gift to me from Him, and so I should be free to deeply interpret it, whether it’s accurate or not (see Romans 1:21-22). I am free to serve people and the church organization without showing love, because after all, I am still serving. And because I’m free, then so are you. And because you’re free to have your own opinion I will respect that opinion and won’t tell you that you’re wrong and teaching heresy, even if I know fully well that you are (see to Proverbs 14:12).

And so we, the church, freely go in so many directions that are wrong that the body of Christ is becoming quite dismembered. You do realize, of course, that a body can be stretched only so far before it falls apart or dies. So, my suggestion is that we use our freedom to be holy. That’s true freedom. True freedom is when we CHOOSE to do what’s right, teach what’s right, and to be holy simply because God is holy. What does it mean to be holy? To live my life they way God lives His. Why should I be holy? Because if I love God with all of my heart and truly have a deep relationship with Him then my soul purpose of life will be to please Him, which results in being holy.