In Part I of Scriptural Holiness, we looked at a Biblical definition of holiness and worked through what it looks like to be holy according to God’s standard as we have it in the Bible. In Part II we will be looking at what it means to be holy in today’s world by examining some things which you may come across on a daily basis.
Several years ago I attended a Jewish funeral service led by a Rabbi. During the service, the familiar words of Deuteronomy 6:5 were read, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Immediately after the Rabbi read these words, he offered commentary that went something like this: “What this means is that we leave the world a better place, and this means that we do the best we can.” My immediate reaction (silently to myself) was, “No! That’s not what God said!”
If this thinking were found only in Jewish circles, it would not have found its way into this article. This thinking has taken root among Protestant Christians and even those who would align with the evangelical camp. “All God expects is that you do the best you can.” The challenge to you is to find a verse in the Bible, without taking it out of context, which relaxes God’s standard to our best.
When God says “love Me with all your heart, soul and might,” and Jesus expounded on this by saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” the standard we must meet is God’s definition of love. When we say all God expects is the best we can do, we relax this standard to whatever it is we consider to be best. In other words, we take God’s standard of holiness and substitute for what we deem to be enough.
As a teenager, I would sometimes go with my grandfather on jobs. One particular job sticks with me to this day. He handed me a rake and told me to clean up the dirt left on the grass after he had cleared it with a backhoe. Once I was done, I went and told my grandfather the job was finished. He promptly returned the rake to me and told me it was not good enough that there was still dirt that could be cleaned up. He then proceeded to explain to me why he took such great care and time to clean up a job site, after which I spent the time it took to make the area look the way he wanted.
Our idea of what is best or what is enough to please God and secure a place in heaven can never measure up to God’s standard. This is true particularly if we do not understand what He means by “love.” Jesus was often quoted telling people they had not done enough when they thought they had gone over and above what was required. God’s holiness and our best are not an equivalent substitute for one another.
Holiness is also at the heart of tension among churches in styles of music and worship, dress and outward appearances, questions surrounding immorality, and conduct on Sunday opposed to our conduct during the week.
In the book Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Baptist Church, is a statement that the music they play in the church is the same music people hear in the world during the week, thus, the church provides comfortable and familiar surroundings especially for those who are not familiar with the church. Notice carefully the word “same.” Is this holy? When I first read this, I remember thinking that this approach to doing church does not conform to the Lord’s holiness (being set apart from the world) because it is not different.
If we are to be set apart from the world, then we cannot imitate it or look like it. If we are to be set apart unto Christ, then we must conform to His expectations. This also requires that we cannot use the means of the world to work out our holiness. If our holiness is rooted in the Lord and we are daily increasing in our holiness, then it is worked out solely through the Lord, totally independent by anything we may find in the world. It is worked out in sources different from those sources found in the world.
The task which is often the most difficult is deciding what is of the Lord and what is of the world, and problems arise when we are too close to the dividing line between the two or try and get as close as we can without technically crossing the line.
We can easily know what is of the Lord and what is of the world by reading the Bible carefully. The Lord has given us plain instructions in the Bible to help us imitate Himself and apply Biblical principles to our lives in the culture and context in which we find ourselves, and these instructions require no interpretation, adjustment or compromise simply because of current events, trends in the culture, or what someone else or some other church is doing.
Perhaps the most difficult task we face is actually embracing the instructions the Lord has given us in the Bible and faithfully applying them to our lives despite what the world around us thinks, says or does. Perhaps this is because we fear losing friends, status or employment, persecution, ridicule, violence, excommunication or something else.
If that is the case, then you must take some time to answer this question: What is more important, the world’s approval or the Lord’s approval? Because holiness is different, the world’s approval is much different than the Lord’s approval, and we cannot reconcile the two in any shape or fashion.
If people are to see Christ in us, then our lives must imitate Him. When our lives no longer imitate Christ, we lose our witness to others in the world and fail to give glory to the Lord. When enough of us tend toward that direction, it affects the church, which affects our missions and reduces our influence in politics, government, secular society, Hollywood, public schools, and so forth.
Truly, one person can make a difference, and good things do come from one person taking a stand.
Besides, the Lord will not measure our faith against anything anyone else does. The only question the Lord has for you is: What did YOU do with the instructions He gave in the Bible?
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