Holiness

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
(1 Peter 1:14-16 ESV)

One of the most trivialized aspects of modern evangelical North American Christianity has been the issue of holiness.  Brushing with broad strokes here, I would say that there are three branches of young evangelicals.

1. The theologically lost.  These are they who claim to have "accepted" Christ into their hearts at some 5th grade retreat; but have since lived completely devoid of spiritual vigor, holiness and zeal for God.  From all outward appearances, they look and act like the unregenerate world.  These run the great danger of falling into the Matthew 7:21 category: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."  These may--at the end of the day--not be saved at all!
2. The theologically sound.  These are those who have the gospel nailed (very important, by the way), espouse to sound biblical theology (e.g., eternal security of believers, sovereignty of God, depravity of men, etc.), and are not ashamed to be labeled "Calvinists" (a label most of them have come to only after studying their Bibles for themselves).  Having grown up in a postmodern, relativistic world, these believers are ready to take the world by storm--and they're theological bulldogs, unwavering in their convictions.  In fact, the world has taken notice of them and in 2009, Time magazine categorized them as part of "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now".  Here's an excerpt from the Time article:  

But, notes Ted Olsen, a managing editor at Christianity Today, "everyone knows where the energy and the passion are in the Evangelical world" — with the pioneering new-Calvinist John Piper of Minneapolis, Seattle's pugnacious Mark Driscoll and Albert Mohler, head of the Southern Seminary of the huge Southern Baptist Convention. The Calvinist-flavored ESV Study Bible sold out its first printing, and Reformed blogs like Between Two Worlds are among cyber-Christendom's hottest links. 

 

           Indeed, among Christendom's "hottest links."  Yet, for all their theological accuracy (for which, I am grateful to God), and though they can nail the gospel spot-on; their danger is a lack of holiness. (Not all, but some may know much but not strive for holiness.) Robust minds, but unsanctified hearts.

         3.  The theologically weak.  I will use New York City as a microcosm for this one.  In New York City, these are the Christians who I believe may indeed be genuine believers of Christ, but due to the theological famine in the Northeast, they have never received solid discipleship growing up.  Hence, as young adults, they are now taking their love for Jesus and plugging into theologically "soft" churches.  Whether it is for the ecstatic worship experience, the racial diversity, or just the novelty of it all; the reasons these evangelicals attend these churches are less than God-honoring and are border line idolatrous.  Churches that commit blatant sin (such as the ordination of women pastors) are embraced (rather than rejected) by this group.  Rather than seeking the solid teaching of the "milk" of God's Word, they would rather be at the hippest and most "culturally-relevant" church.  This group, like the preceding two groups, also lack holiness (albeit for different reasons than group 2).

The common thread for all three groups is a need for holiness.  (Obviously, group one needs to get saved first.)  The apostle Peter, when writing to Christians scattered all over Asia Minor, encourages them to strive for holiness.  It is particularly interesting to note that Peter's belief in the eternal security of Christians (i.e.,  "Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time"  (1 Peter 1:5 ESV)) did not keep him from exhorting all Christians to be holy in "all your conduct."  Passions (particularly sexual ones) were identified as stemming from an unregenerate heart (i.e., "your former ignorance").  Spiritually blind persons are held captive and conformed to their passions of lusts.

For Peter, the God who promised eternal salvation was also the same God who commanded His followers to strive for holiness during their time on earth. 

As the world tunes into the Super Bowl and its sexually explicit commercials and half-time show (the sexually-charged Beyonce is supposedly set to perform that night), please think long and hard about this Scripture text.  Is it worth it?  How much holiness are you willing to compromise?  Jesus said, "If your eye offends you, pluck it out."  (Not to mention the San Francisco 49ers' public statement today regarding comments made by one of its players condemning homosexuality: "The San Francisco 49ers reject the comments that were made yesterday, and have addressed the matter with Chris. There is no place for discrimination within our organization at any level. We have and always will proudly support the LGBT community.")

 Mustard Seed Church will be holding a "Bible Reading Session" at 7 pm for anyone who would like to read through the entire book of Genesis instead of watching the Super Bowl. (Anyone is welcome to come by!)  But if you stay home, and even if you end up watching the game, please guard your eyes and hearts.  God is infinitely more concerned with your soul than He is about a thrown football.

We could nail the gospel, churn out all the right theology, but at the end of the day our God says, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."  And according to the apostle Peter, life is too short to not strive for holiness.

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile  (1 Peter 1:17 ESV)