Holiness is completely misunderstood.

holiness is exciting

In my last post I made the point that one of the greatest gulfs between our ways and God’s ways is in how we feel about holiness. God is perfectly holy and loves holiness, but apart from Christ we are perfectly unholy. Even if we are in Christ, though we are holy in God’s sight we still often are drawn more to what is worldly, profane, and carnal than what is holy.

In other words, God usually has to drag us into holiness. The Scripture “Be holy because I am holy,” sounds more like a threat than an invitation.

For example, given the choice between watching an episode of Saturday Night Live or spending an hour in prayer and worship, many Christians would choose the former. They might discipline themselves to pray instead of watch profane programming, but they would prefer the comedy. Again, given the choice between watching a three-hour football game or hearing three, excellent, one-hour Bible teachings on how to live a holy life, I suspect few American Christians would enthusiastically choose the latter. Why is that?

How to get an appetite for what is truly good and pleasurable

I say all this not to heap guilt on us but rather to bring the problem starkly into the light. We are very different from God on this. We have a problem, and it is not a small problem. It is not just a matter of whether we can clean up our act well enough to be saved. Rather, it is a matter of knowing God.

True Christians will increasingly want to know God and his ways, and as that desire increases we come face to face with the matter of how we learn to love holiness as God does. How we learn to genuinely desire holiness and dislike worldliness. To have new appetites and desires. How we become like the person who learns to truly love eating natural food and has no desire to consume store-bought, packaged foods loaded with artificial ingredients.

The deadening effect of an unholy mindset

You have gotten this far in the article, so there is hope for you! Some checked out at the first mention of the word holiness. You are still reading because you are no longer walking fully in the steps of Esau, who is the prototype of the person who has absolutely no interest in the things of God, whose life revolves exclusively around the things of this world. Therefore Esau is profane, godless, unholy, irreverent, utterly worldly.

Esau comes up in one of the important sections of the New Testament talking about holiness. Hebrews 12:14–16 says, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.”

Note the words “unholy like Esau.” Other translations say “godless like Esau.” His defining act was to sell his most valuable asset, his invisible rights as the firstborn son, to his brother. This story is so important to our subject, let’s read it:

When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:27–34)

Note that Esau didn’t seem to do anything terrible here. He didn’t kill anyone, commit sexual immorality, steal anything, bow down to a statue. Hunting animals is not wrong. Esau was simply hungry, ravenously hungry. Nothing wrong with that. But he was also simply a fool, which means he made a choice against his best interest. He did not recognize the invisible things that are most valuable in life. The rest of his life confirmed this, for he showed zero interest in knowing God.

In other words, he was God-less. His god was the world, and thus the world became a profane thing to him. Everything becomes profane to the godless person. And a profane life is an increasingly deadening existence.

Holiness understood

Holiness begins with faith in Christ, and then it increasingly becomes part of our mind, desires, appetites, and actions as we see everything in life in its relationship to God. Our holiness grows as we value things as God values them. As we worship and give thanks to God for every good thing in this world. As we approve the conduct that God approves and humbly abominate the conduct that God abominates. And as we enjoy doing what Jesus would do.

Holiness is God-centered (rather than rule-centered). Holiness is love. It is pure in motive, unselfish, and humble. Holiness is without guile or deception, but fearlessly holds to the truth. Holiness is beautiful beyond words, good beyond description, desirable above every worldly pleasure. It is true, positive, clean, and lasting. Holiness is satisfying, fulfilling, and pleasing. It is energizing and zealous, burning like a fire. At the same time, it is peaceful, but not bored or apathetic. Holiness loves God and his glory above all.

Holiness is clean, pure pleasure. It is a pleasure far surpassing impure pleasure.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord! In his great love, he shares that with you through Christ.

Our way versus God’s way

Our way: Be worldly because it’s more fun. Worldliness is the good life.

God’s way: Be holy for I am holy. Holiness is the good life.

You can be pure in an evil-smudged world.

be pure

Today we look at one of God’s ways that is most not our way, but it is perfectly good and desirable once we come to our senses.

Recall again that the theme Scripture of this current series is Isaiah 55:8–9: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

What that tells us is that we cannot trust our intuitions when it comes to God and his ways. Nor can we trust what popular opinion and media culture say about God and his ways. We can only trust what God has revealed to us about himself and his ways.

What Jesus says

I believe that God has revealed the truth through Jesus and the Bible. And here is what Jesus teaches about God’s countercultural, counterintuitive ways: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13–14)

What American culture says

Turn on the television and watch for a few hours, or buy some magazines at the grocery store checkout lane and read, or check out the trailers of the top ten movies, and then answer this question: In general, is American culture and the people who drink deeply of it walking on the easy path through the wide gate, or walking on the hard path through the narrow gate?

If we were to shut ourselves off from our culture for one month and devote ourselves to reading the Bible over and over again, we would come to one conclusion: the way of life that American culture generally approves of is not God’s way.

Your big decision

This brings us to a fork in the road. Will we choose to walk in God’s way even though Jesus says it is hard and it is the way chosen by few? Or will we choose to go with the easy flow of the majority even though it is a way God rejects?

Big decision. Because the way of our world appeals to our appetites and desires, and it is smiled upon by people around us. It feels good. It is truly the easy way.

But there is one big problem. God does not approve.

And there is another big problem. In the end the way of the world leads to pain and loss. Its pleasures are temporary.

Choose the way that’s good for you!

All pleasures that God forbids resemble what meth does to an addict.

The Bible says, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:7–9)

This verse presents a contrast. The ways of the flesh lead to corruption, but the ways of the Holy Spirit lead to eternal life.

God’s ways may not at first feel like the way we want to go—just as a person accustomed to eating a high-sugar, high-salt, processed-food diet recoils from eating healthful, natural food—but eventually we find that God’s pure ways bring true, lasting life. They bring peace, joy, and love. His ways bring hope, righteousness, and strength. They bring health and true happiness to soul and body.

God’s ways versus our ways

God’s ways: “You shall be holy for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

Our ways: You only get one life, so enjoy yourself while you can. There is no such thing as evil. Make your own rules. The dark side is entertaining. Purity is for prudes. If it feels good, do it. Explore. Decide for yourself. No one tells me what to do. Don’t judge me. Express yourself. I do it my way. Have fun. Get it on.

Based on this stark contrast, I leave you with wisdom from the apostle Peter: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation,” (Acts 2:40).