We think in terms of black and white, in or out, good or bad. Such thinking seems to come naturally to us - and we base a lot of it on gut reaction. We train our instincts to a certain extent, but beyond it, we don't venture often.

And we usually cast that pattern onto things around us, and adjust our filters according to religious fervor. In other words, the more devoted we are, the less badness we are willing to tolerate in people and things around us. The secret to holiness is to be dedicated enough to its cause.

Now, especially for those of us who have taken part in Christian higher education at the college or graduate level, we may often come away with the idea that if we have more knowledge, we are better able to determine goodness and badness. The secret to holiness, in that world, is knowledge - the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, after all. With knowledge, we can see more angles and be more able to follow the maze of facts, motivations, etc. that make up our reality.

Combine knowledge and fervor, and then we have a supreme mixture, right? We can tell if something is bad, and then have the guts to do something about it. We can then apply a very strong filter - if any part of something (or someone) is bad, all of it is. That's holiness, after all (so we were taught), what we are to strive for - we need to root out the badness within ourselves and seek to fight it in the world around us. And none of our actions count for anything unless they are done with pure motives.

Raise your hand if you've been there. In that room, where the preacher was driving home his points about holiness - that we must not be around sin, and must separate from anything and anyone that looks sinful.

Well, we need to take a step back and dissect those ideas a little bit. What if I told you that no action in this life can ever be done with a completely pure motive? Or at least, were it possible, such an action would be more rare than the four-leaf clover! The heart's sickness and wickedness are yet present throughout this life. We praise God for the new creation within us, but we journey on through a daily pattern of repentance, don't we?

And what if I were to tell you that what you were told is holiness - really isn't? I remember often hearing that holiness is a complete separation from sin, that sin cannot be in the same room as holiness. But Jesus' entire existence on earth was God dwelling with sin in his presence - and the very effects of sin upon his human body!

So by all means, practice new patterns and try to stop sinning in the ways you know you do. But the subtle notion that our efforts in that vein will net us brownie points with God - that is destructive to the child of God. 

Combine that notion with either knowledge or fervor, and we have a lethal potion indeed. Put all three together, and we go nuclear.

We must divest ourselves of that notion and replace it with grace. The knowledge is grace. The fervor is grace. That awareness that we have of our shortcomings - grace. That motivation and energy to do something about it - grace again.

Consider this: Jesus dwelt on earth side-by-side with fallenness, and it did not diminish his power. His light of holiness pushed against and overcame the darkness of the power of sin, and resulted in the supreme revelation of the character of God.

Jesus had some advice for the church in a parable - he compared it to a field of wheat which also had "tares." Tares are plants that look like wheat, but aren't. They're weeds really. And Jesus said let them grow together - why? Not because the tares might end up being redeemed. No - his concern was that applying an anti-weed filter might end up destroying legitimate wheat as an unintended side-effect.

The effort to mass-produce holiness has had that effect. It's a real effect, and souls are being caught up in it as we speak. There are people whose faith has been shaken because they've been cast aside and left alone in the dark, told they were weeds and not wheat - all the while  being children of the living God.

In the same way, there are those of us who have done spiritual surgery on ourselves, and in the cause of holiness have ripped out anything in our own souls that looked like a weed. Not all of it was, after all. We can so trust our wisdom-of-the-moment, rarely considering how we will look back on ourselves in fifteen or twenty years.

Paul wrote that the lack of love leads essentially to uselessness in the church. I tell you that if I have great knowledge and fervor, yet not love in grace, I will cause pain and destruction both to the church and to the souls around me. And to myself in the process.

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Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash