Holiness

How do you define holiness? Our concepts of what we think dictate how we act and react to situations and people. I decided to look up the word holiness online to get some definitions - it turned out to be very eye opening. The reason I'm thinking about holiness today is because of a situation at church yesterday. More to that in a moment - things will become clearer then.

First off, in looking up the definition of holiness, I found two closely related but vastly different meanings. These come from the American Heritage Dictionary.

Meaning #1 - Belonging to, derived from, or associated with a divine power.

Meaning #2 (actually #3 in the dictionary) - Living according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system.

Do you see the difference between the two? Most people in society define holiness by #2 - it has to do with doing something (or not doing something). It's a works or rules based condition. If you live this way, then you are holy. However, Biblical holiness seems more to do definition #1. We are associated with, belong to, derived from the death and resurrection of Jesus. That's what makes us holy - not because of what we do or don't do. It's evidenced in how we respond to God when we mess up.

When we recognize the difference between these meanings and apply #1 to our understanding, it transforms the way we think and the way we treat others. Case in point.

Many of you know that I play bass on the worship team (band) at church. There is a lady who goes to our church that has a ministry of reaching out to women in the local jails. Many of the women have come to Christ and attend one of our Sunday morning services. Yesterday, there were many of these ladies attending. I noticed them because they sit right in front of my side of the stage. About the 2nd or 3rd song into the worship time, many of them had made their way to the altar, openly weeping. BTW - some of these women are new to the faith, and haven't been completely "Christianized" yet. They don't always wear clothes appropriate for a church service. So when they kneel down in front of my side of the stage (right in front of me), they help me to focus on "fixing my eyes on Jesus" - or, at least, on the back wall! (Instead of properly instructing them on what to wear, I think I'll just extend some grace - and not look!) At any rate, these women were at the front weeping, during a fast song even - don't they know you have to at least wait for the slower songs. I'm kidding, of course. But God was moving in their hearts, and they were responding to Him in the most transparent and honest way. And as I was playing, I began to think of how we see people versus the way God sees people. Many of these women have felt the sting of rejection in their lives because of what they've done. But as I watched them (peripherally) pouring themselves out before God, I began to think that they may possibly be the most holy people in the sanctuary. They had messed up their lives and knew they had messed up, but were responding openly and unashamedly before the One who accepts them in all their brokeness. It reminded me of the story of a "certain immoral woman" who came to Jesus (who was eating at a "religious" man's house) and wept at His feet. With her tears she washed his feet and with her hair she dried them. She then annointed his feet with alabaster. It was the most beautiful and appropriate response she could offer to him, and in doing so evidenced the holiness which marked her life - in spite of all that she had done. She was choosing to identify with, be associated with and belong to Jesus. How much holier can you get? What was Jesus's response to her? “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

I hope the women who have come out of the prison ministry understand how precious they are to God. When I recognize the holiness of these women, I tend to have more grace with them, even if they do continue to "mess things up" or feel like they're blowing it. Maybe we could extend this kind of grace to all our brothers and sisters, knowing that everyday we move closer to maturity - but we're not there yet! And we're going to make mistakes. And maybe alot of them. But when we love and accept each other in spite of this, we move closer to the state of community that we should have with each other and what God calls us to. Freely forgiving each other, freely serving each other, freely loving each other.