Holy Moly!

“…as if humility, chastity, poverty, in a word holiness, had not done incalculably more harm to life hitherto, than any sort of horror or vice…As long as the priest, the professional denier, calumniator and poisoner of life, is considered as the highest kind of man, there can be no answer to the question, what is truth? Truth has already been turned topsy-turvy, when the conscious advocate of nonentity and of denial passes as the representative of ‘truth’” (Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, 10).

Is holiness the denial of pleasure?

To an archaic monastic individual, maybe so. But I would argue that there are many falsehoods inserted into post-Roman Christianity, which have led to the incensed attitude of such people as Nietzsche.

It was not Jesus, the one who turned water into wine, hung out with prostitutes, and partied with sinners who told us that sex is sinful, alcohol is a Devil’s brew, and Christians should not hang out with sinners. Indeed, Jesus would tell us that alcohol in moderation is advisable, sex within marriage is the God-way, and the ungodly should take a great deal of our personal time. And none of these are offensive to God. He made all of them, and even the most vile human is His child.

If drinking wine and hanging out with drunks and hookers makes a person a sinner, then Jesus died for his own sins.

Holiness is a life that is pleasing to God in accordance with His will. Denial of pleasure is not the gateway to holiness, but to self-righteousness. I would agree with Abraham Cohen that holiness is apartness from everything that defiles. Unfortunately, the people of God often feel that it is their responsibility to define that which is offensive to God based on what is culturally offensive to them.

We may be awed and satisfied by our own opinions of holiness, but it is God’s vocabulary that truly defines what it is to be “set apart.” And God’s Word is filled with that definition.

“If God is alive, then the Bible is His voice. No other work is as worthy of being considered a manifestation of His will. There is no other mirror in the world where His will and spiritual guidance is unmistakably reflected” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God In Search of Man, 245).

If holiness is the act of pleasing God, then, for the Christian, a life of holiness is that of obeying Jesus' commands, which are encapsulated in Matthew 25:31-46. It is not the outward and personal appearance of personal piety that is most pleasing, but the outward service to others that brings true pleasure to Christ.

In His dust,
Johnny

P.S. To read another one of my articles that supports this subject, click here: http://flocksdiner.com/?p=46