belong

Beloved how this perfect love unites us all in Jesus!
One heart, and soul, and mind we prove the union heaven gave us.

It seems there are a number of definitions of what it means to be “holy” or to live a “holy life.” Even in the Church of God, a holiness movement, there are a number of people who believe deeply in holiness living, but would define this differently from one another. Often, we hear holiness defined as what we don’t do. “I believe in living a holy life, therefore I do not …” You can fill in the blanks. What we find in the Scriptures, however, is that holiness has much more to do with our relationships with God, others, and ourselves. “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus was asked. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The Church of God (Anderson, IN) came out of the Wesleyan Holiness movement. As Dr. Stafford points out in Vision for the Church of God at the Crossroads, John Wesley, the father of this movement, was burdened for Christians who neglected this call to live in deep love for God and others. For Wesley, love was the highest call and was the focus of the Christian life. The Scriptures talk about a “perfect” love for God. This word, “perfect,” does not mean perfection, but is better understood as “complete.” Often our understanding of holiness, or a sanctified life, is limited to perfectionism. We define holiness not by our call to embody and enact love for God and others, but on our lack of action. We understand holiness as keeping ourselves out of the mess of life. For us, holiness is sanitation instead of sanctification.

But real love, perfect love, is messy. I remember in a theology class in seminary, when Dr. Stafford was lecturing on sanctification, he defined it as an orientation of our lives. He said that we make sanctification our occupation; that each day we wake up and ask the Lord where God would have us participate in the mission of God in the world. When we are sanctified, perfect love becomes our way of life. We are looking for where God would have us live out the great commandments in the world at all times. Perfect love is messy, because life is messy. When we enter into the places where people need love the most, it is usually in broken and hurting places. This is the perfect, complete love that was shown to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God entered into our messy brokenness and redeemed us; made us holy.

I am continually struck by the idea that our understanding of holiness has become very worldly over the years. The way we have defined holiness has been the way that most anyone in our culture or society would define holiness: perfect, clean, untouched. There is nothing exceptional about this kind of holiness. Perfect love, however, is a radical form of holiness. It is unexpected and rare. It is difficult and beautiful. It is found in the depths of brokenness and in the joys of reconciliation. It is the oxygen of the Kingdom of God. This is the kind of love to which we have been called. Perfect love is what unites us and demonstrates the love of God in the world.

May we glorify God with holy lives, the evidence of which is wholehearted love and devotion to God and to the well being of others.