HERE IT IS! … PART 1 Commentary on March 18, My Utmost for His Highest You will be challenged… maybe even assimilated. To my non-Christian Friends: The comments on this devotional are difficult to write because I know they will offend some of you. They deal with something near and dear to God’s heart, the holiness of His people. But in the process of reminding Christians of what “holiness in the fear of God” entails, they have to be reminded to not be like you, who don’t fear God, or associate with you in some things you do. And yes, you guessed it, some Christians will take exception to this approach to openly speaking about living holy lives before God, because they mistakenly believe it’s not loving to criticize evil openly and name people publicly who promote what God calls evil. However, if you’ll grit your teeth and read and allow God to open your mind and heart to the message of Redemption and righteous living before Him, you may receive insight that you never thought of before, about how you can be changed, “transformed by the renewing of your mind”, the Bible says. (Romans 12:2) To my Christian Friends: We are living in a time when it is very confusing for many Christians, especially immature Christians who haven’t yet understood what holiness before God really is. The teaching of “tolerance” in public schools for generations has so infused the Christian culture that many think it’s more important to maintain personal relationships with people than explain the truth to them, about how they are lost in their sin without God. Also, very importantly, this humanistic ideal justifies many activities that Christians engage in which they have no business doing, in association with the world’s view of personal “rights” and “individual liberty”, “being part of the community”, “being available to the lost”, “showing love for the lost” and “trying to reach the lost”. So, if you will take time to read the devotional and commentary with it, you may be shocked, depending on where you are with Christ. However, hopefully, you will learn some truths that God wants to teach you about “purifying ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God”. (2 Corinthian 7:1) (NIV) (KJV) “Conversations with Anonymous” Layman John: As each of you have studied Chamber’s devotional for March 18 I’m sure you’ve come away with different perspectives on what Paul is talking about in “perfecting holiness”. That stands to reason since we’re all on a unique path in our relationship with Christ and our understanding of Biblical principles. So, as we work our way through what he says, let’s try to bring some cohesiveness to our understanding so we all go away with some common vision of what “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” can mean to us in our practical lives. Mous, where would you start with this? Mous: I’d start with the title. I’m not sure it’s up to me to “Bring Myself up to This Level” of holiness that Chambers is talking about. I think that’s something only God can do. I can try to do what I understand to be the right thing…but I doubt my ability to be perfectly holy. Ann: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. I mean…how can I know all the time what’s exactly the right thing to do or not do to be holy? Ony: Well, I understand holiness as having two parts, or maybe I should say “two players”. We have to do our part, and God does His part. And we can’t do His part, or Him our part. I don’t think Paul the Apostle would have written to the Corinthians saying, “let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit” in that first verse of chapter seven unless he expected some serious commitment on our part. Sure, of course we can’t do all that by ourselves. But I think we have to make our solid commitment to be obedient to what God shows us we need to do, or change, before God can provide us with the added power of His Spirit to make it work. Mous: Well, yeah…I agree with Ony on that. Chambers’ title just seemed to put it all on us. Layman John: So, we can already see how we have differing perspectives on “holiness”. How about the Scripture Chambers uses, 2 Corinthians 7:1? The King James Version he originally used says, “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God”. Is “fear” of God part of being holy? Ony: My NIV says, “perfecting holiness out of reverence for God”. But I checked online at BibleGateway and most of the translations used “fear of God” there. So, I have to think Paul meant the kind of “fear” that agrees with God being our ultimate judge, with the power to condemn us if we don’t obey Him. I’m pretty sure when most people think of “reverence” for God they think of being quiet in church, or not cursing in His name, or just taking God really seriously. But, somehow, I think our modern sense of reverence is more about formality than thinking of consequences for not being reverent. Layman John: That’s a good point, Ony. I thought it might be good to look in Strong’s Concordance to get as accurate a meaning as I could of the Greek word Paul used. Strong’s says the Greek word is “phobos”, and defines it primarily as, “fear”, “terror”, “alarm”, and secondarily as “reverence” and “respect”. So that helps us understand that Paul is giving us a wise basis for living in a way that maintains the holiness that God expects of us, instead of polluting ourselves by living in any way that disrespects God. Ann: Terror…alarm…that seems like overkill, trying to get us to live just so so, like by a tight set of rules, to keep from being sent to hell. That doesn’t seem right. Ony: I don’t think that’s Paul’s message either. But he’s using a Greek word that has strong meaning in some contexts and a less strong meaning in others. I think when he says “perfecting holiness out of fear of God” he’s talking about having such a reverence for God that we are really serious about living so we don’t bring dishonor to God in our lives. Ann: That sounds more like it. Maybe it’s just that in our day we use the word “fear” to mean “scared”, or “scared to death”, or “scared out of our socks”. Layman John: Have you ever thought about what “fear” really is in modern lingo? Is it just an emotion? Ann: Yeah, when I’m scared I can get pretty emotional! Mous: Wait… Paul can’t be saying “get scared emotionally about being holy”. He’s talking about a thought-through commitment to living a certain way…by certain standards…right? Layman John: I’m sure he is. And the reason I asked what we think “fear” is was to get us past thinking about “fear” as an emotion. I’ve had occasions when I was momentarily terrified of some physical threat to myself, like a vicious dog coming at me as a child. Those were very emotional moments where my mind assessed a danger as being very real and immediate. And since God made us that way my physiology reacted by pumping adrenalin all through my brain and muscles, and I wanted to get somewhere else fast. I’ve also had occasions when the fear was emotionally palpable but I kept my emotion under control to get myself out of the threatening situation, like once believing I was almost out of fuel and was desperate to find an appropriate place to land my aircraft. Then, all of us can think of some time when we could see likely bad consequences down the road of life if we stayed on our present course, right? And our “fear”, or “reverence”, of those consequences motivated us to change course. That’s the kind of “fear” I think Paul is talking about. It’s a consciousness, an awareness, of the unfortunate consequences if we don’t push ourselves to do the things that will eliminate those unfortunate consequences and give us beneficial consequences. Ann: Couldn’t it also be that Paul is talking about reverence for God out of love for God? Mous: How do you mean? Ann: You know how sometimes you read in a story about someone revering someone a lot, or adoring them so much they would do anything for them. That’s more like love than being afraid, right? So couldn’t Paul prod us to be holy before God just because we love Him? Ony: Well Jesus said if we love Him we’ll keep His commandments. But I’m not sure where we find Paul saying it quite like that. Layman John: In this verse to the Corinthians it’s apparent that Paul wasn’t referring to a love-based reverence but an honor-based reverence that was motivated by a deep respect for Who God is, more as Creator and Lord than as friend or brother. But you bring up a good point, Ann, because Paul also recognized in his writings that there are different motivations for believers to be obedient to God, based on how spiritually mature they are. In this case Paul is addressing the Corinthian church people at their level of spiritual maturity, generally speaking. That’s why he prods them to be holy before God out of a fearful respect for Who God Is. They aren’t spiritually mature enough to live holy lives before God just out of love. He had just finished warning them in chapter 6 against their association with unbelievers in ways that diminished their holiness before God. So Paul reminds them of the righteous justification for living holy lives before God out of fearful respect for God. Mous: Ok. I see the reason why Paul says to be holy based on our fearful reverence for God. But then, what does he mean by “holy” in this case, because I understand “holy” as a status God gives to us, not something we work up to by strict living. Ony: That’s why I said there are two levels, like one part we play and the other God’s part. I get my understanding of holiness from the Old Testament, where God told Moses all those things that needed to be done to make sure the things used in the temple for worship were made just right and handled just right. The people didn’t make those things holy. They just obeyed God in how they made the items and how they handled the items during worship. It was their obedience that God honored as holy, what God called holy. So, once God saw that the special items were made just right, and they were obediently consecrated to God in the special ceremony, then God called those things “holy unto the Lord” because those things represented the people’s obedient honor of God. Then too, as the people obeyed God in the conduct of their lives, God called them holy…like calling them His Holy People. Ann: I think I just understood what holiness is for the first time ever! Mous: Hmmm…me too, I think. Layman John: Ony… I’m humbled.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:26:53 +0000
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