DISCLAIMER: I am not attempting to give heavy-handed counsel here, but rather some scattered thoughts. Yes, I understand that I come across sometimes as cranky, or teachery, or black-and-white, given some of my syntax, but seriously, I have a deeply soft spot and some lambish tendencies.
So, read on and enjoy. Feel free to ask me questions if you have any at theblacksmithshammer91@gmail.com or 413-657-1887. And eat the meat and spit out the bones.
Walk before me and be blameless. -from Genesis 17:1-
Be perfect, therefore as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. -Matthew 5:48-
You shall be holy, for I the L-rd your G-d am holy. -Leviticus 19:1-
I have half a mind to just leave these verses here, without commentary.
But I do have some brief thoughts here.
There are times when certain of us like to take these verses and cut them out of Scripture, precisely because we think being perfect, blameless, or holy are unattainable.
Just like we think prophetic accuracy is unobtainable.
We think things like the Elijah List are the standard, or the modern American Prophetic ministry is the standard.
And so we don’t even try, and we parrot the latest tripe that “Jesus died so I don’t have to be perfect.”
“He fulfills the law so I don’t have to.”
Hey, look, gang, that is not what that verse means.
And the prophets in Scripture, in their flaws, are not going anywhere.
So, we may as well deal with this and what it means to be holy, and blameless and perfect.
So, one dynamic missing from our theology of holiness of perfection is the dynamic of completeness.
What is also present in our theology that needs to be jettisoned and burned is the idea of a holy checklist of “how little did you sin today?”
An excellent way of looking at the idea of perfection and holiness, for a believer, is embodied in the following two questions.
- Did you check-in with G-d today to see what the flavor of grace was for today?
- Did you appropriate THAT flavor of grace for today?
Perfection and holiness are not so much about a list, as they are about apporiating the gifts that Father has planned to give you for today.
It may be that your holiness today happens on the level of a relationship, on the level of Community.
CONCERNING THE CONTEXT FOR BEING HOLY
In fact, Leviticus 17:1, where Father tells Israel to be holy, is followed immediately by a discussion of interacting with your parents. Hey, gang, I know some of our parents were insufferable jackasses or jennyasses, but can we at least attempt to engage with them in some fashion that looks toward mending fences without compormising our standards, and coming to a place of deep understanding that they too were products of their upbringings. I can tell you, by the time I wanted to reestablish connection with my father, this is what I had to look forward to.
That is my dad’s tombstone. Yes he was an insufferable person at times, but the kicker is, by the time I had returned from Florida, where my mother shared all sorts of stories, because she is my FAVORITE storyteller, he had died, and POOF like that, he was moved onto glory, having spent the last 10 years of his life reconciling to the L-rd, and others in the Franklin/Brentwood/Nashville area, and leaving a legacy of work with the area’s AA chapters that stands in honor of him.
I know that pain, but I also understand that I was able to see both his preconversion self and his postconversion self, and still was able to bless him, along with my brother and a few of our Tennessee family.
As to honoring parents, given the context of Leviticus 17:1, see here for some practical counsel on doing that without compromising your standards.
And I was witness to none of that because I was too stubborn to reconnect. When I had gotten the news, Mercy wanted a whole lot of his physical touch.
And as a result, I returned to social media.
It may be that your holiness today happens on the level of executing something that you were designed to do. Solving a problem that you were born or hardwired to solve. That is Birthright holiness.
It may be that your holiness today involves cleansing this day of the year or this season or this transition because historically this day or season or transition has been defiled annually by a pattern of junk.
It may be that holiness looks like a trip to a certain place so you can pray through some trauma that happened to you.
Regardless, we need to get away from holiness as a list, and embrace the idea of holiness as connecting with and partnering with the Holy One in order to execute whatever is on His mind for today.
It’s not about how much you did or did not cuss today, although if that is an ongoing struggle that He is coaching you on specifically, it might be a good idea not to fight with Him on that.
It might be that holiness involves you stepping into the kitchen where you have had 50 fights with your wife or husband and cleansing the atmosphere of the kitchen a couple of hours before your spouse wakes up, and just attempting to say something to connect with him or her. Granted, he or she may be in no mood to respond, but keep hacking at it. If you need a friend to help you establish a new pattern or break an old pattern, give a friend a call.
Being holy and perfect means connecting with the One Who is holy, perfect, just, and true.
It might mean biting your tongue until it bleeds.
It might mean giving someone a hug.
It might mean, fill in the blank.
But jettison your list of expectations, and instead seek to commune with Him.
Being holy is not a list but a dynamic. We like the list, granted because it is tangible, but really, connecting with the wind of heaven and the breath of the Almighty G-d is deeper and moves more than your piddly list. Burn the paper of expectations, and go after Him. As He shows you how to interact with what is around you, the holiness, the set-apartedness of everything will increase.
It is so worth it.
And for more on these areas of holiness, see the following.