Rethinking Sin and Holiness (Part Two: Holiness)

Defining Holiness

Ho´ly

a.	1.	Set apart to the service or worship of God; hallowed; sacred; reserved from profane or common use; holy vessels; a holy priesthood.
	2.	Spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God.

Ho´li`ness

n.	1.	The state or quality of being holy; perfect moral integrity or purity; freedom from sin; sanctity; innocence. Who is like thee, glorious in holiness! - Ex. xv. 11.
	2.	The state of being hallowed, or consecrated to God or to his worship; sacredness. Israel was holiness unto the Lord. - Jer.ii.3.

The above definitions are from Webster's online dictionary, and on top of that, in the NIV Bible there are 532 verses that have the words holy and holiness in them.  I would say that the concept of holiness is pretty important in our journeys, especially as Christians.  Sadly, I think certain interpretations of holiness often lead Christians to a way of living that can limit our availability/accessibility to others.
The most dangerous way in which we define holiness, or being holy, is when we interpret it as the freedom or absence of sin, especially in reference to the lives we live on this earth.  If you believe as I do (and as what was covered in my last post on sin) that we live in continual sin and need to be continually in repentance, then it is impossible to see yourself as without sin or in in a state of having no sin.  When we look at ourselves as being holy, we can cause permanent damage in our future relationships with others.  Perhaps of more concern, when we see ourselves as holy beings we often give ourselves power and control over realities in which we have little knowledge and absolutely no control over.  Instead of letting go and letting God work within us, we try to force (most often unintentionally) God into others.  The results of this kind of approach have been catastrophic in my experience.  With that said, it might be a good idea to look at other ways to view holiness.
The last thing I want anyone to do after reading the first couple paragraphs is to lose hope or to wonder, "why bother."  The mistake is not an intentional one in how we apply holiness, and I believe it can be somewhat remedied if we plug a little humility into the concept.  There are two definitions that I like from Webster's: 

Holy- set apart to the service or worship of God
Holiness- the state of being hallowed, or consecrated to God or to his worship

If we set a standard for ourselves of being without sin, we will fail every time.  It is not a matter of what people find out or how good we are at hiding it, even if no one (including ourselves) knows, we can never live up to this standard.  It is akin to listing sins in that we focus too often on not sinning, and in doing so, we either don't live up to the list we've made, or worse, we commit sins that aren't on the list which we may not consider to be important or that we are ignorant to.
The beautiful thing about the definitions above is that it opens up a whole new way to look at scripture and holiness.  The point is that we don't need to be sinless to be set apart in service or worship to God!  In fact, I believe he prefers it if we come as we are and don't try to pretend that we are better than anyone else.  This way of looking at holiness also brings scripture to our level, as intended by the writers of the gospels and Paul.  Maybe Jesus didn't die to free us from our sins in this life, but instead died so we could have a more intimate and personal relationship with God and with others.  Another way to phrase this is to recognize that Jesus died so the sins we continually commit won't be the death of us, but rather his death made the process of confession simpler through means of a more intimate relationship with God.  (Feel free to ask questions in the comments or through email/facebook if you have trouble grasping what I'm trying to say or if you want to explore the topic further.)


Application

To me this is the most exciting opportunity in writing on sin and holiness.  Imagine what we can do when we stop trying to be God, and instead take an honest approach to imitating the example of Christ.  It's amazing what God can open us up to when we stop worrying about what other people are doing and why we should set ourselves apart from them.  It's incredible what can happen when the church stops trying to be perfect and infallible, and this isn't just limited to Catholics.  Churches have been their own worst enemies because of this approach.
Jesus didn't come to save the religious institution which was hell bent on dictating others' lives.  He ate with "sinners" and healed these on the margins of society, people who had been been viewed as "unclean" or "unworthy" to be in relationship with him.  And yet today it is ironic how often we see churches doing their best to dictate others lives as well as being intentional in steering clear of ministry to specific groups of people.
We are more concerned with not becoming like sinners that we cut ourselves off from being in communion and fellowship with the very people we're called to.
You might honestly ask yourselves who Christians are called to.  It might be better if we ask ourselves:  Who didn't Jesus die for?  Make a list of all the people you feel are unworthy of Christ's love and I would argue those are the people you should be most worried about serving/being in fellowship with.  There is NO ONE ALIVE who is not invited by Christ to be in relationship with God.  It is a tragedy that we don't often take that approach, and even as I write this, I have failed many times at reflecting this outlook myself.
In conclusion, let us recognize that we are all sinners.  We need each other and we need God.  In following the example of Christ we will make many mistakes as we try to reach out to people who have been ignored for too long.  Let's stop trying to maintain an impossible state, but instead let's strive to continually be transformed and to never be satisfied with where we are.  I would rather miss the mark trying to follow Christ's example than I would trying to live a perfect life.
I hope this was helpful and thought provoking to those who have read my two part blog series.  Feel free to leave impressions in the comments.

God bless,

Jason
 
 

Rethinking Sin and Holiness (Part One: Sin)

Intro

I think one of the biggest mistakes many Christians make today is through the misapplication of scriptural teachings on sin and holiness.  I include myself in this and do not intend to instill guilt into people who have done there best to apply scripture in following Christ.  As you who will read this will see, the point is that in striving to follow Christ we all sin;  The key is to be able to acknowledge our part in continual sin even if we don't recognize it.  Without repentance of sin, even sins of ignorance, I believe we handicap our ability to forgive and love others (especially those who many see as unworthy of love or forgiveness, aka people on the fringe).   

Diagnosing the Problem

I would be willing to bet that no matter where you go to church that sin would be acknowledged as a problem.  When contemplating what sin is, you might get tons of differing responses.  Human beings have made it there business to associate a long list of things which we should not do.  This list of "do nots" varies from person to person, church to church, denomination to denomination, etc.  In reading the gospels, it makes me wonder if we are missing the point.
I know the intent of listing sins is to simplify things, and the intention of this is to help people to achieve holiness in some cases.  But if we put aside the good intent of trying to use scripture to list sins, have we really simplified things?  Jesus is constantly redefining sin and judgment throughout his ministry in the gospels.  If we truly take his teachings to heart, we have to ask ourselves how deep the rabbit hole really is.
There are individual sins, group sins, communal sins, governmental sins, physical sins, sins of the mind, and sins of ignorance.  I've only listed types of sins and I think we can all agree it would be a waste of time spending the rest of my life trying to isolate every specific sin onto a list and then using my time trying to avoid those sins.  And yet this is how we often practice our faith.  We walk on egg shells day to day, and even worse, when someone else struggles with something in their lives we condemn them.  I want to mention that this type of behavior is not limited to a specific group of people.  I think we all struggle with this to some extent.  We are either acknowledging this behavior and trying to get better at being judgmental with the help of God and others, or we feel like because we have forgiveness for our sins and don't commit certain sins (which are worse than other sins) that we are set apart from others.  For those of you reading this who don't struggle with sin anymore, you might find this blog post of little use.
For some of us, before we can even take steps to try and "fix" our tendency to judge, we must first acknowledge that we are living in continual sin whether we know it or not.  Jesus likened thinking certain thoughts to committing physical sins.  He also calls us to self examination before we try to solve someone else's problems with sins.  If we are living in continual sin, shouldn't we be constantly examining our own roles in injustice at every level?  If we are to be judged as we judge others, shouldn't we handle our relationships with others in a respectful fashion, especially our enemies who we are called to love?  I know that I have run into problems when I mistakenly think that sin and holiness begin and end with me.  When we become absorbed in our own lives, we shut ourselves off from the beautiful opportunities God places right under our nose:  To serve and be in fellowship with others, especially people on the fringes of society.  
It's not just serving the poor, but doing our best to empower them to join in the service of others.  We can't do this if we don't recognize that we as Christians suffer from the same continual sin as others.  When we label sins, we are mostly setting a standard that no one can live up to as well as putting ourselves, as broken and imperfect beings, in a place reserved for God.  In my opinion and experience, doing so is about power and control.  Ironically, the way Jesus established these things was through service and humility.  I could be the one misreading scripture, but I don't recall Jesus ever belittling a person's right to think for themselves or make there own choices.  He definitely spoke to consequences and results of certain choices, but set an example of forgiveness, to the point that he even forgives the very people who hate him and are nailing him to the cross.  I can safely say that if someone caused me suffering like Christ suffered, forgiveness would not be at the front of my mind.  I have failed many lesser tests in life and therefore am in no position to judge others.


Redistribution for a Solution

I think that I have at least made a point for the fallacy of specifying sin and trying to achieve holiness by not sinning.  I would propose that we unlearn the way we think about sin and put our energies and time to better use.  It is far clearer, in my understanding, what we are called to than what we are called not to do.  Please recognize that what we are called to is still difficult, but it is exponentially easier than trying to avoid all sin (or even some sin; or even one sin).  Our time would be better spent trying to avoid getting wet in a downpour than it would be trying to spend our lives not sinning.  While sin is ugly, without acknowledging it we wouldn't be able to experience repentance, forgiveness and love to the fullness of what God intends.  The bottom line is that sin is a paradox which we will never fully understand, and that while we would probably prefer not to sin, God turns the negativity of our actions into the beauty of our individual and communal stories/testimonies.  Would the parable of the "Prodigal Son" be the same without the son's bad choices and struggles?
Rather than trying to shine a light on our sins, why don't we think of it as a sickness.  An epidemic that plagues all of humanity.  If Jesus invites everyone to follow him, than the only difference between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians continually repent and seek forgiveness for their sin.  I am obviously over simplifying when I type that, but how would people as a whole be different, even transformed, if they analyzed themselves instead of judging others?  What would church look like without walls of any kind?  Even scarier, what would church look like if we truly invited everyone, regardless of identity or credentials, to follow Christ in community of the church?
I would dare any church, local or greater, to invite and build relationships with anyone who would accept that invitation.  We fall into the myth of believing that we have to reach a certain status to help or serve others, especially in Western culture.  For many Christians and people in general, we invest so much time into achieving a certain level of success that we lose the ability to help others.  I myself have become so absorbed in my social status, my financial status, and my spiritual status that I am sure to have missed many opportunities to put my God given gifts to work in spite of my situation.  Even to this day I fear that I spend way too much time feeling sorry for myself.
I want to conclude by saying that I know the processes I have proposed are not easy.  I am also not trying to justify obvious wrongs by thinking of sin as an epidemic instead of a list we can avoid.  If you take anything away from this, I would say that we should redistribute our energy into what we can participate in or what we are called to rather than taking stands against certain behaviors or people.  It is impossible to know why certain people do things unless we truly walk in their shoes.  I'm not saying we would make the same decisions, but it is undeniable that environment and circumstance influence choices.  The sins of the "haves" are not any less to God than the sins of the "have nots."  Rather than isolating certain people for certain behavior and speaking against them, why don't we work together to improve others' situations so it is less tempting to resort to certain behaviors?
We are called to love God and love people above all else, so let's continue to do our best to love people as God intended.

I hope those who read this are moved and I will tackle holiness in part two.  I am open to discussion and suggestions on said topic(s).

God bless,

Jason