Worship on Sunday at 10:30

Be Holy and I am Holy

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I give thanks to our gracious God for putting you all in our lives. Your faithfulness and your enthusiasm fill my heart with joy and helps complete my hope in Christ. Every day I look forward to serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ alongside each of you and growing in our discipleship journey together.

In 1 Peter 1:15-16, the Apostle Peter writes, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is writ, ‘Be holy, because I am holy.” The Apostle Peter is quoting from Leviticus 11:44. We know God wants us to be holy because He is holy, but what does the phrase “Holiness of God” truly mean?

As we seek to live out the Mission of the Global Methodist Church, we must understand the word “holiness” so that we can actively spread “Scriptural Holiness” throughout the glob.

I am reading a book by Dr. Timothy C. Tennent; former President of Asbury Theological Seminary called The Call to Holiness – Pursing the Heart of God for the Love of the World. It is a book of helping one understand not only the Holy Attributes of God, but how these attributes play a role in our practice of holiness.

Dr. Tennent says that the one of the key issues in the church today is that we don’t understand the attributes of God properly. We see them as “pedals of a flowers (his analogy, not mine). God is the center of the flower and the attributes of love, grace, mercy, all present, all knowing, all present, justice, etc are the pedals that surround the flower separate but a part of the flower. With this mindset we often build a hierarchy of God’s attributes trying to determine what is the greatest attribute of God as if these attributes were separate.

Sometimes with this hierarchical mindset of God’s attributes we often put them in conflict with one another. For example, we read in the Old Testament about God’s justice, and wrath, and in the New Testament we read more about God’s grace and love. We tend to separate the two. However God’s attributes are separate. For example, His justice and wrath in the Old Testament in intertwined with His Love and Mercy for His creation, for His chosen people. His love drives his justice, and his justice drives his love because the are united and not separated.

The Holiness of God exists because He is all these. 

The other area that Dr. Tennent addresses is that as we try to understand these attributes of God, we are doing so through our experiences and not understanding the fullness of God’s perfection. We are limited in our experiences, and our understanding of how God interacts with humanity. But the truth is God is perfect. His holiness is perfect holiness. His love is perfect love because it incorporates mercy, justice, righteousness, and even righteous anger. If we begin by seeing God’s attributes in their full perfection, then we begin understanding that God is perfect love, perfect mercy, etc. And if we begin by seeing God’s attributes as united, then we begin understanding that there is not one “greater” attribute.

My meditation of this first chapter has led me to say this, “we can’t strive to reflect just one of God’s attributes because they are not individually separated. If we strive to reflect God’s perfect love; we must also strive to reflect God’s perfect mercy, justice, grace, etc. You cannot have one without the other.

I look forward to completing the book and sharing with you, my insights. Have a blessed week.

Shalom, 

Pastor Frank