Holiness is Distinction

Preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”[1]

God calls His people to be holy. Holiness is a concept that has become blurred at best in our modern world. The call for holiness has become rare among our churches; in part, this is true because the concept has become a caricature. Nevertheless, God does call His people to be holy.

Holiness demands discrimination. The word “discrimination” has assumed an unenviable, even an undesirable, connotation in modern usage. Though discrimination has become a dirty word in this enlightened day, God discriminates. The wicked are rejected and those who receive His Son as Lord are saved. Similarly, those who will please God must be discriminating in their attitudes and actions.

Related to discrimination is the concept of distinction; in fact, holiness may be defined through thinking of distinction. Let me explain what I mean by inviting you to turn to the Word of God. Peter’s admonition to Christians identified as belonging to the Diaspora contains the instruction that serves as our text for this study.

Preparation for Godly Living — If as Christians we will fulfil Peter’s instructions, we must prepare our minds for action and we must be sober-minded. There is not a great deal in these instructions that we are liable to misunderstand, but we must acknowledge the tendency to filter what has been written through the lens of our own cultural bias. Therefore, I urge you to take a moment to consider the implications of Peter’s words. Certainly, we want to be clear in our thinking and we do want to understand the will of God in this matter of living in anticipation of the return of our Lord Christ, and especially as we anticipate the grace that will be brought to us at His return.

First, Peter assumes that the child of God will prepare his or her mind for action. The participial phrase Peter used literally reads, “girding up the loins of your minds.” His choice of words is descriptive, speaking of an ongoing action. People in that day did not wear pants, but rather both men and women wore tunics and/or robes. When preparing for battle or for work, the robes would be gathered up and bound around the loins so they would not hinder movement. Therefore, Peter is urging Christians to be always prepared for action; and in particular, the mind is to be readied for action.

The emphasis of much of contemporary preaching is for Christians to prepare the heart; however, Peter calls for preparation of the mind for action. It is the mind, and not the emotions, that is to be prepared for action. It is practical intellect, and not how one feels about issues and events, that Peter has in focus. All of our rational powers, all of our reflexive abilities, are to be brought under conscious control so we can live in anticipation of the full grace of Christ at His revelation.

We are also to be sober-minded, or self-disciplined. Peter calls for calm, steady thinking that evaluates matters correctly and that is not quickly swayed by the latest philosophical fad. Though modern preaching depreciates the idea of abstinence, substituting instead the concept of moderation, Christians are to be alert, not permitting anything to dull their minds so that they can think clearly on every occasion.

Christ is coming again! This is the blessed hope of the Christian [see Titus 2:13]. Disciplined thinking and active preparation are required to make the hope reality, however. The modern world anesthetises us through entertainment and with a lifestyle that is so busy that we are unable to think, much less meditate. We are indoctrinated constantly through news media and we too frequently lack the courage to resist the ridicule of the wicked. So, we are at last lulled into adopting a laissez faire attitude toward wickedness. Consequently, we lose sight of Christ’s return and concentrate only on fulfilling our immediate, earthly desires.

Christians no longer live in the light of Christ’s return. I confess that I am painting with a broad brush and there are courageous exceptions, but I nevertheless observe a general retreat from godliness and from holiness. John urged us to live holy lives when he wrote, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming… Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure [1 John 2:28; 3:2, 3].

Honestly, when did you last think of Christ’s return? When did you last pause to consider the impact of what you were doing on your relationship with the coming Lord? When did you last watch a sitcom critically, asking what was being taught through the ribald humour and through the biting sarcasm that verbally destroyed some hapless soul?

We are at first disgusted when gratuitous sexual activity is portrayed in movies and on television. With time and repeated viewing, we become inured to the display of immorality. However, there is an even more insidious and detrimental effect on goodness and righteousness in these presentations since such activity seldom shows the negative consequence of such action. Thus, we become cynical and we soon begin to dismiss the coming reign of Christ, believing there is no consequence for evil. Soon, we fall into moral anarchy and begin to live as though all life centred on ourselves.

I have lived long enough to at last qualify as a curmudgeon, and because of my age, I recall a day when evil did not triumph in the movies. The good guys always wore white hats, and they always caught the bad guys. The bad guys were always held to account as they were delivered over to civil authorities and justice was effectively meted out. I’m really not certain when the transition began, but an attitude of vengeance and vigilantism seems to have become fashionable and now prevails. In movies, evil people are no longer turned over to civil authorities for justice, but instead they are simply killed.

What I find especially disturbing about this trend is the subtle attitude that continues to grow in our subconscious mind that there is no justice in the world, that we must somehow take matters into our own hands. Tragically, we Christians are equally susceptible to adopt this attitude as are those of the world, and we begin to “take control” of the church, “take control” of our relationships, “take control” of our lives. We do this, despite knowing that we are to seek the will of God in congregational life, knowing that we are to accept one another in Christ and to encourage one another toward godliness, and knowing that our times are in God’s hands.

Neither am I alone in observing a grievous degeneration of language in contemporary culture. Crude language and insensitivity to personal dignity increasingly mark contemporary speech. Perhaps such uncouth language is inevitable given the quality of “entertainment” that influences the minds of both youth and adults.

Throughout society, I observe a growing tolerance of attitudes that were once intolerable. We have become a generation that no longer wishes to be thought extreme in goodness, and so we remain silent as evil grows bolder. Though often offended, we will speak quietly among ourselves, but we no longer openly insist upon righteousness.

I am always astonished that Christians appeal to the courts for redress concerning the loss of religious freedom or that Christians petition Parliament for restoration of righteousness, and yet they resist being a holy people that make the doctrine of Christ attractive [see Titus 2:10]. I marvel at the number of decent people that will attend a noisy march or participate in a large rally, but who fail to speak to their neighbours concerning the hope that Christ has given to us as Christians.

Even when we are temperate in language and kindly in actions, too often we choose the elements of this dying world as of greater value than service to God. We will make any sacrifice if only our children are advantaged, forgetting that godliness with contentment is a great gain [1 Timothy 6:6].[2] Are we teaching our children to be holy, or is a successful career of greater importance in our estimate? Do our children witness us making the effort to be holy, or is their social development of greater importance?

If we will be pleasing to God, this congregation must be marked with a radical righteousness. I am not suggesting you become nut cases, but on the authority of God’s Word, I do expect the people of this congregation to be a holy people as befitting the Name by which we are called. The distinctive nature of God’s holiness as expressed throughout creation will occupy the remainder of our time in this message.

Warnings Against Godless Living — Christians are repeatedly cautioned against being co-opted by the world about them. Some attitudes are characteristic of the world, and all such attitudes are in opposition to righteousness and are antithetical to holiness. Peter warns Christians, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Certainly, we can think of attitudes that mark the world about us and which are opposed to godliness.

If we have difficulty recognising what Peter is warning against, we need but turn to 1 Peter 4:1-3. Arm yourselves with [Christ’s] way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

Paul, likewise, cautions against sexual immorality, which obviates sanctification. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, we read a strong indictment of modern sexual attitudes. This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Approval of or participation in sexual immorality is an expression of ungodliness. We are so inundated with sexual themes that we no longer recognise the impact immorality has on our lives. We are perhaps at first repelled by the blatant nature of this immorality, then as time passes we become inured to the presence of the wickedness, and at last we find ourselves approving of the very things that once appalled us.

Music seems profoundly preoccupied with sexual themes. Rap music is almost totally concerned with themes that can only be described as misogynist, hateful and utterly focused on sexual gratification. Rock is likewise increasingly ribald and crude. Country music is too often focused on cheatin’, being cheated on and drinkin’. The music we choose does have an impact on our worldview.

The movies Hollywood produces and promotes are almost utterly dependent upon crude language, sexually explicit situations and gratuitous violence. This is in spite of the fact that movies espousing family values are a virtual certainty to generate money. Unfortunately, when we support “family friendly” movies, we are underwriting “family destructive” movies. The same Walt Disney Studios that team with Pixar Studios to make G-rated titles also owns Miramax Studios that produces R-rated movies.

Television has become an even more arid wasteland than it once was. Contemporary programming is so utterly occupied with promoting deviancy as normal that few of us are even aware that we are being amused into accepting unholy attitudes. Sitcoms writers seem preoccupied with scatological humour and bodily functions performed below the waist, and “action” shows increasingly focus on the bizarre and violent. However, it is not the portrayal of such themes that is most disturbing to me, it is the lack of negative consequence for wickedness that especially disturbs me.

Even if we confine our television viewing to the “news programmes,” reporters have become editorialists rather than reporters. We are therefore educated to accept evil. Ridicule of anyone attempting to promote holiness and normalisation of aberrant behaviour seems to be one of the major assignments for those who read the news. The primary qualification for network newsreaders seems to be the ability to maintain a serious mien while making the most outlandish statements imaginable.

Teachers unions in the United States and in Canada seem more focused on social engineering than on ensuring sound instruction in the fundamentals of knowledge. Sex educators—when did parents surrender responsibility to teach their own children moral standards—seem intent on indoctrinating children into the cult of moral relativism and hedonism. Too often children leave school feeling good about themselves though they are incapable of reading, writing or communicating.

The result of this is that youth no longer know where the limits are. Parents pleading for educators to include abstinence as part of education are ridiculed and told that such will never work. Apparently, youth today are less able to control their passions than were youth of a few decades past. Youth today are more knowledgeable concerning sexual technique than any previous generation, and the incidence of teenage abortion and the incidence of out-of-wedlock birth are at epidemic proportions.

And I have not even begun to speak of the plague of pornography. Multiple studies indicate that up to fifty percent of pastors in any given convocation have viewed pornography within the previous thirty days. If the shepherds are filling their minds with filth, should it be surprising that the flock, also, struggles to be godly? If fathers and husbands struggle, should we be surprised if teenagers also choose to dine on filth?

We who profess Christ as Lord need to hear and heed Paul’s instruction for holy living. Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

…Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption [Ephesians 4:17-24, 29, 30].

I believe each Christian man should be a man of character; he should speak the truth, and he should live the truth. Reputation is what others think you are; character is what you are. Character is determined by what you do when no one is looking. I am praying that our men will be men of character. Just so, I am praying that our women will be godly and good, noted for their chaste lives marked by godliness.

Holiness — God is holy, and therefore we Christians are to be holy in all [our] conduct. In support of this teaching, Peter cites Moses: You shall be holy, for I am holy [Leviticus 11:44]. If we will fulfil this divine command, we need to understand how God is holy, and we need to work to reflect our relationship to Him through emulating His character.

Peter warns against surrendering to the passions of [our] former ignorance, urging us to choose to be holy. What does it mean to be holy? The word translated “holy” is the Greek word hágiós. The concept conveyed throughout the New Testament writings is the thought of a person or thing reserved, dedicated, set apart for God’s particular purposes. To be holy is to be separated to God and separated from sin. To be holy is to be identified as belonging to God, and refusing to be identified as belonging to the world. Therefore, holiness speaks of the cultivation of those divine qualities that mark us as belonging to God, even as we set aside our human qualities that mark us as part of a race under sentence of death.

In the eyes of God, we Christians are now declared to be holy. This is not because of what we do, but it is because of who we are. Paul writes of this declaration in the opening words of the Ephesian encyclical. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved [Ephesians 1:3-6].

In our relationship with God, we do not need to become holy—we are holy! Holiness describes our standing before the Father, a standing we enjoy because of the mercies of Christ. Those mercies were conferred on each Christian when he or she was born into the Family of God. Christians are declared to be holy, since they are born into the Family of God and therefore belong to Him. Nevertheless, though we are declared holy, we are responsible to be holy before the eyes of a watching world. Through holy lives, God is glorified and Christ is exalted.

Christians will yet be holy, being perfected at Christ’s return [see 1 John 3:1-3]. However, we have not now achieved holiness. In summary, we are declared holy before the Father, permitting us access to His throne; but we shall be made holy at Christ’s return. Nevertheless, we are responsible to work to become holy now.

Holiness speaks of distinction. Christians are a people for [God’s] own possession [see 2 Peter 2:9] or as an older translation presented the concept, “a peculiar people” [éthnos hágion]. Christians are to be distinctive in the way they live. This is not a call for an artificial distinction, but it is rather a call for us to reflect who we are in Christ.

Holiness implies that God made order out of chaos—order expressed largely through separation and differences. In creation, God separated light from dark and created day and night, separated the waters and created land, and so on.

Differences reflect the divine order, while attempts to abolish those differences represent a denial of that order and a yearning for primeval chaos—moral and otherwise. Some of the differences that are central to the Judeo-Christian worldview include good and evil, God and man, man and woman, human and animal, holy and profane.[3]

Good and evil are distinct concepts. Though society attempts to define deviancy down, good is not evil and evil is not good. Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, Isaiah warned [Isaiah 5:20]. Holiness declares that moral absolutes—God-based moral values—nevertheless exist.

Social elites constantly attack moral absolutes. Moral relativism is endorsed, (“What I think is good is good for me, what you think is good is good for you”). There is a popular concept bandied about that insists, “I’m okay; you’re okay;” it is an assault against holiness. It really does not matter what I think is good, good is defined by what God declares to be good; and goodness is yet an approximation of godliness.

Goodness is the reflection of the values that define God, and according to Jesus, the Ten Commandments reflect God’s character [see Matthew 19:16-19]. Though courts seem intent on exerting jurisdiction over whether these commandments have a legitimate place in society or whether they are just one moral code among many, goodness does not change and God still holds all mankind accountable to one standard.

Holiness depends upon the ability to make moral judgments. Some leaders are evil, and the nations they lead are consequently evil. Anyone who would feed political enemies to a woodchopper, as Saddam Hussein is documented to have done, is an evil man, and the regime he led was likewise evil. The old Soviet empire was an evil empire.

Multiculturalism leads to some postures and expressions that can only be described as foolish and opposed to holiness. The values of some cultures are better than the values of others. A culture that embraces sexual deviancy as normal is a wicked culture. A culture that condones slaughter of the unborn for the convenience of the mother is an evil culture. Similarly, a religion that rejoices at the slaughter of innocent people through suicide attacks is neither a holy nor a good religion.

Modern society substitutes psychological categories for moral ones, and therefore blurs the distinctions that God has set in place. Carla Homolka is not sick; she is evil. An individual who deliberately gets drunk and drives, resulting in the death of a family through his actions, is not sick; his actions are wicked and he must be held accountable.

Poverty does not cause crime. If that were the case, I would be a criminal; and if poverty caused crime, Bernie Ebbers would be exonerated. Canada was once populated with people that would be considered poor today, and despite their poverty, they built a great nation. As we became “rich,” crime escalated. The assassins of 9-11 did not commit their atrocious deeds because of poverty; they were supplied with great sums of moneys and many came from privileged backgrounds in a wealthy nation.

God and man are distinct. God is God and man is man. There is an infinite gulf between man and God, and God is infinitely higher than man. For much of our world, perhaps for most of our world, man has been elevated to god-like status. People are indoctrinated to believe they occupy such a high position that need brook no challenge from the divine. Each man thus becomes for himself the source of values and the measure of all things, and therefore man is unaccountable to God. A holy culture recognises man’s place in the world and acknowledges the reign of God over mankind.

Man and woman are distinct; each has a role to play, complementing one another. God created man [i.e., the human being] … male and female He created them [Genesis 1:27]. This is the area of the greatest current cultural battle. The Government of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, several provincial Superior Courts, the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and a host of commentators have waded into the fray with great vigour. In the final analysis, it matters little what politicians think, man and woman are yet complementary and in their distinctive roles they represent God’s ideal for the race.

The biblical view is that man and woman are entirely distinct beings, and human order in large part rests on preserving that distinctiveness. Man and woman were designed to complement one another. Man married to man, or woman married to woman, fail to complement one another, no matter how great their professed love for one another. Modern society, however, labours to abolish this biblical distinction.

Today, to ensure utter confusion, we have not only “transsexual people—an individual who has changed sex, though he or she or it does not obliterate the sexes’ distinctiveness—but we also have “transgendered” persons—people who are born one sex, but who act out gender-roles belonging to the opposite sex.

Society advocates much more than merely homosexuality-heterosexuality equality; modern society appears intent on obliterating the notion of fixed sex—of male and female. That is why in the last two decades the word “sex”—always used to describe male or female—has been replaced by “gender.” Sex is objective and fixed; gender is subjective and malleable. Thus, some universities, and even the great state of Oregon, are intent on eliminating men's and women's washrooms, as they imply a sex distinctiveness that is unacceptable to opponents of sex distinctions.

One cannot speak of the blurring of distinction between the sexes without providing commentary on the “same-sex marriage” debate. This becomes especially pertinent in light of the action of the Parliament of Canada this past week. Canada became the third nation in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. Our politicians will in time be proved either farsighted, or it will be seen that they were merely reactionary.

Certainly, the debate over same-sex marriage has occupied the attention of society at large, but the debate among the various churches has been every bit as vigorous as theologians attempt to clarify the appropriate response to a rapidly changing social fabric. One scholar has written of the conflict among the churches:

“The current debate over the … the blessing of same-sex unions is intense. In the end, however, it is not just about sex. It is about the moral and religious framework within which sexual issues can be decided. For liberals and conservatives alike, sex is the concrete and visible sign of a series of theoretical and less obvious disagreements over central matters of faith. Conservatives have argued from the beginning that the crucial issue for them is the authority of Scripture. Liberals have replied that the issue is not whether Scripture is authoritative but how it is read.”[4]

Two laws recorded in the Torah provide evidence of the biblical desire to retain male-female distinctiveness. The first passage imposes a ban on men wearing women's clothing and on women wearing what is distinctive to men [see Deuteronomy 22:5]. The second passage to consider presents a clear condemnation of male homosexual behaviour; You shall not lie with a male as with a woman [Leviticus 18:22]. Sexual intercourse between men obliterates the ultimate male-female distinction. Therefore, acting on one’s homosexual urges cannot be holy, regardless of the legality of the action.

Human and animal are distinct entities. Biblical distinction is being obliterated in the secular world as society increasingly confuses man and animal. According to the Bible, man is created in God's image, animals are not. Indeed, the best way to describe holiness is the movement from the animal-like to the God-like. One of the great human tasks, according to the biblical worldview, is to separate oneself from the animal—to emulate the holy, not the animal. On the other hand, in the contemporary secular world, every attempt is made to show how similar humans are to the “other animals.”

Nature was created for man’s use. The natural environment has no significance without man to appreciate it and to use it for his own good. Deer are graceful creatures, but deer have no more significance than a rock on mars without man to see and to appreciate their grace. All creation was prepared for man’s use, and for God’s glory.

Holy and profane are distinct concepts. A major separation in the biblical values system is between the holy and the profane. Applied to speech, this means, for example, that cursing and crude speech is regarded far less seriously in those parts of society estranged from the Christian Faith. Applied to sex, this means that sexual intercourse has a dimension of holiness unknown to the pagans, who regard it as a volitional and health issue. According to God, how we speak and how we use our bodies, reveal our relationship to Him and declare our holiness.

Contemporary society generally has utter disdain for the very concept of the holy. The cultural elite and self-serving politicians regularly heap contempt on religious people's sensitivities. Worthy of particular ridicule are those benighted souls who thought that the baring of Janet Jackson's breast on national television during half-time at the 2004 Super Bowl and who are offended at cursing and vulgarity on the public airwaves are worth getting upset about. The contention that we can “just turn it off” does not address the real issue, which is that society is utterly contemptuous of holiness. By erasing the distinctions that make for an ordered universe, those working to dismantle godly values are working, consciously or not, to restore chaos. Christians must not give in to wickedness just because every one is doing it. You must be holy as God is holy.

I must conclude, as the hour is late. It is important to say that being holy—artificially or actually—will not make one a Christian. However, because one is a Christian, that one is expected to be holy. Let’s return to basics. If you will be holy, you must become a Christian. Going to church will not make one a Christian anymore than parking in a garage will make one’s automobile a Mercedes.

A Christian is one who has been born from above and into the Family of God. That new birth is the result of God’s work in the life of one who believes the truth concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. The Word of God declares that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. He was buried and He was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures. Risen from the dead, He appeared to selected disciples [see 1 Corinthians 15:3-8]. The information is provided so that we can know what God has done and so that we can know what we must do in order to be saved. Salvation is the gift of God to all who receive His Son as Master of life.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13].

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[3] The contrasting points of view are detailed in Dennis Prager, The Left’s battle to restore chaos: Judeo-Christian values: Part X, located at Townhall.com, http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/printdp20050405.shtml, accessed 5 April 2005

[4] David C. Steinmetz, Negotiating Truce in Anglican Civil War, cited by Albert Mohler, Beyond the News, 28 June 2005