Proverbs 3:13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.
My friend and pastor, David Kalamen, was explaining a thought from his sermon to a few of us sitting around a table. That thought lit up and stuck to my inner being like a bramble to the hide of a forest animal. The illumined thought was hooked and set. I got it! The insight from that particular word of God now belonged to me and it could be used for my wholeness in life. Prov. 3:13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. He asked us what God’s main attribute or nature was and like most of us I said, “Love.” Others around the table picked justice, mercy, goodness and so on. He said, “Holiness!” 1 Pet. 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
My understanding of pastor David’s explanation is as follows. Without holiness, love is just lust or emotional and mental euphoria. Justice without holiness is whatever a person deems it to be. Justice could easily resort back to an eye for an eye if holiness is not the foundation for justice. The mercy or goodness we dispense is just an interpretation of social mercy based on our place and manner of upbringing if the mercy and goodness is not processed through the holiness of God. Wow! I get it! Holiness determines wholeness and wellness in all things we do and become.
My understanding of pastor David’s explanation is as follows. Without holiness, love is just lust or emotional and mental euphoria. Justice without holiness is whatever a person deems it to be. Justice could easily resort back to an eye for an eye if holiness is not the foundation for justice. The mercy or goodness we dispense is just an interpretation of social mercy based on our place and manner of upbringing if the mercy and goodness is not processed through the holiness of God. Wow! I get it! Holiness determines wholeness and wellness in all things we do and become.
Until we filter all of our life actions through the holiness of God, these actions simply remain acts of religion, soulism, and humanism. Do the acts in themselves do any good? Of course they do. They are good works and there are often good results from these works. However, these good works in themselves will not get the traction for the wholeness of life that holiness produces through our God.
Holiness will sift out all personal agendas, carnal interpretations, and self-righteousness that individuals stumble around in trying to do the works of God in their own strength. The measuring stick or plumb line we use in life must line up with the one God uses and His is holiness. God is holy! He cannot be outside of who He is. Lev. 20:26 You must be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the other peoples to be mine. We belong to him, and He wants us determining all our decisions through the same filter He uses and that is holiness.
Jesus was explaining this concept from what we call The Sermon On the Mount or The Beatitudes. In six places in chapter five, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says,” You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, do not (do this or that.) “BUT I say to you.” Jesus was filtering the law of God that people had brought to the lowest common denominator back to what the spirit of holiness would have seen the law to be. Man could not do this by himself but Jesus, the perfect and holy sacrifice nailed to the cross, could do it and give God’s holiness to everyone who accepted Jesus as Lord.
Matt.5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Adultery filtered through holiness not only takes in the very act, but now through the holiness of Christ also takes in the musing and planning of the act. Holiness, through Jesus our Lord, brings wholeness to all the things we do and think.
Matt.5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Adultery filtered through holiness not only takes in the very act, but now through the holiness of Christ also takes in the musing and planning of the act. Holiness, through Jesus our Lord, brings wholeness to all the things we do and think.
Jesus has made it possible through His perfect and holy sacrifice on the cross for us to have a whole and righteous life with God. If we filter and process our Christian walk by faith in Christ and His holiness, we also will have wholeness of life now and forevermore. Rom. 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Thank you, Pastor David, for this living word. I needed it and I get it! Holiness is wholeness.
Bless you Norm – great take on the message.
WOW! Thank you for writing this.I get it… I get it …I get it. If you don't live, love, and function from a place of holiness, it's not wholeness.