I have a problem. If you've been following this blog for any time, you would agree that is an understatement. I have a host of problems, but I want to focus on one in particular today, that I tend to minimize or ignore. Readers may have already picked up on it, so if it's obvious already...well, get over it. It's new to me.
I have been neglecting my responsibility to cleanse myself and perfect or complete holiness in myself. I should be doing this in fear of my Master. As my ministry buddy, Paul, says in 2 Corinthians 7:1, as a result of the promises lined out in chapter 6, I should purify or cleanse myself (go through catharsis, which could also be emotional cleansing), and perfect or complete holiness in fear of God. There is not a lot of wiggle room or gray area in this statement. The promise in chapter 6 is the adoption by God which, as Paul puts it, God has already done. So the cleansing and completing of holiness is in response to a promise we trust has already been completed on God's part. Sounds good, doesn't it? I'm not working to gain the promise, I'm working in gratitude for having the promise already.
I seem to not be all that honorable a receiver of the promise. Having received the adoption by my Master, I then have not purified myself and do not consider holiness to be completed in me. I have not done this in fear of my Master. I still lust, I still speak negatively about someone without knowledge, I still consider hone my sarcasm and cynicism regularly. These are not the actions which increase holiness, but rather the opposite. These actions make me look like everyone else, and that means common or profane (in the sense as not set apart for special use by a deity, not in the sense of cussing or something). Because these terms which are antithetical to holiness are so often used for using "bad" or four-letter words, the application of them to daily life is lost. But it is actually more appropriate to use them for daily living than my language. If I use a lot of "colorful" language, I don't talk like everyone else, I don't hear that language at work. But if I act with a cynical attitude, then my attitude does look like those who have no relationship with Jesus, and that is profane, common, or vulgar, in their actual meanings. They have been vilified to the point of uselessness in the development of holiness.
It would be great if I could blame my lack of holy development on semantics of antithetical terms, but I can't. I may not be able to use those antithetical words for what I do normally, but I still understand that my actions and attitudes are not holy. I know that my words and terms are more like the world I live in rather than my home world of Heaven. I know those facts even if those around me do not. That they do not notice anything different about me is what speaks volumes in support of my point. I am not holy if there is nothing appreciably different about my demeanor than the agnostics, practical atheists, and utilitarians I work with. If my actions do not declare that I know God exists, or I give the impression that I simply go with whatever works regardless of moral implications, then I cannot be distinguished from those categories of people around me who have no practical daily working relationship with the Master of the universe. That's not an opinion, that is true by definition of holiness, of agnostic, of practical atheist, of utilitarian, and therefore of me when I fit those other definitions.
I may not actually be those things, but no one knows my true character unless my actions support that character and make it known. I may have been adopted by the Master of all space, time, and matter. But it is a grand secret I keep until I perfect holiness in fear of God. Perhaps I have tasted and seen that He is God, but if I keep it a secret, then I have not ritually purified myself for the special use of this One I serve (or am supposed to be serving). If some random person were to survey my co-workers regarding my beliefs, would they be able to point to actions and attitudes on my part that support what they may suspect from sporadic claims I have made in the last five years? Or would their answers approximate something more like, "Well he said that he believes in Jesus, but..." Whatever follows the but is the verifiable part, and is more real in their minds than any claim on my part.
Today, I will attempt to cleanse my mind, my attitudes, my actions, my speech from cynicism, sarcasm, and curb my imaginations desire to jump to conclusions without knowledge. I will seek today to be more available to the special use of my Master. Boy this will take a lot more than a shower.
Matt, He calls us to be peculiar people. Honey, you were born that way, you had a head start. Unfortunately, trying to fit in and be like everyone else warped you. Remember that little boy who sat "in" the toilet not "on" the toilet, or the little boy who still had peas in his mouth in the morning, or left them still in the toilet after a visit to the bathroom post dinner. You have cracked me up for years, and God has had your life planned out for eons.
ReplyDeleteYes, cleanse, refresh, renew, and be yourself... love you lots...hope this isn't too embarrassing. :)