HOLINESS OR HYPOCRISY?

There are hot-button issues that elicit strong reactions just by mentioning them. Same-sex marriage and abortion are two that always seem to produce emotional responses. Likewise, some hot-button issues in the church bring out the same kind of emotional and sometimes “over-the-top” responses. One such topic in the church for many years has been the subject of holiness.

I was raised in a conservative, Spirit-filled home in western Canada. The church we attended preached a very strong message of Spirit fullness and grace. Even though there was a stronger than normal emphasis on grace, there were plenty of things we were not allowed to do as children. For instance, we could not go outside and play on Sundays. Attending movies was forbidden, as was bowling. These taboos were a part of the holiness message of that time. In other parts of the country, the holiness message forbade women to wear makeup. They were not to adorn themselves with jewelry or wear short skirts — and other infamous “sins” were forbidden.

A large part of the Spirit-filled community of the first half of the last century came out of the Holiness Movement that had its beginnings   under the ministry of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. As time passed, some of the new denominations became rather legalistic, and holiness became a message of dos, don’ts and rules.

 

In the 1980’s the American church found itself in the middle of a changing church culture that was being heavily influenced by secular and religious media, especially Christian television and a few very strong “on-camera” personalities. One of those loud voices was a Southern evangelist who was well known for his bombastic and legalistic messages reviling makeup, short skirts and worldliness in general. The evangelist had a huge following as he thundered his holiness message across the airways. His audience stayed huge until one day it was discovered that he was enjoying the company of prostitutes. His behavior was not holiness — it was hypocrisy. Sadly, once this door was opened, there followed a flood of revelations about similar behavior by other well-known Christian leaders.

Since the mid-eighties, the subject of holiness has pretty much disappeared from view in large segments of the Spirit-filled and contemporary church. The embarrassment of the past hypocrisy caused the church to retreat from an important truth. At the same time, taking advantage of our embarrassment, the worldliness of our secular society pushed its way deeply into our compromised, contemporary church.

Holiness is important to every believer. But to understand why we need to be pursuing holy lives, we first need to understand what holiness is and what it is not.

Holiness is the consistent living out of our love relationship with God which we have been brought into through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those of us who have received adoption as a son or daughter are learning to be good children and true to our Father. In simplified terms, this is holiness.

Legalistic holiness consists merely of dos and don’ts, of outward appearances, and of obeying certain routines. This is the hypocritical holiness of the Pharisees to whom Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside may be clean also” (Matthew 23:25-26, Amplified Bible).

Legalistic holiness is man-pleasing and carnal, for its behavior is in opposition to how God sees His children. “For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

True holiness is not a scary word nor should it be a subject that brings up controversy. Powerful truths have always had some who take the truth being taught and overstate it or twist it in an attempt to make it say what they want. For example, just think of what has been done to the message of God’s desire to bless His children. Some have taken that powerful truth and pushed it to the extreme by teaching that God intends every believer to be wealthy — and that is just not true or biblically supportable. God promises to meet our need, not our greed!

True holiness is authentic Christian living that rises out of our love and gratitude to God. True holiness is a heart that is pure before the Lord. True holiness is found in those who are hungry to serve and please their heavenly Father. True holiness is found in those who are doers of the Word and not hearers only. True holiness is found in those who allow the Holy Spirit to not just dwell in them but to fill them to overflowing. The Holy Spirit is the agent of holiness and the fruit of His overflowing (Galatians 5:22-23) is the fruit of an authentic, holy life!