The Tribune

HOLINESS. Just mention the word and all sorts of mental images arise: Legalism, plainness, hardness, excesses, extremism and the list goes on and on. It's companion terms: moral purity and sanctification also conjure up some stereotypical mental pictures, but perhaps not as quickly or as forcibly as does the word holiness. One reason for these erroneous and disconcerting concepts is that practical holiness is not being preached or practiced sufficiently by modern day Christians. Holiness is not a characteristic reserved for monks or mountain-folk, or the uneducated. Holiness is the everyday business of every Christian. It should be reflected in our day-by-day decisions, actions and attitudes. We live in an age of freedom of expression and freedom of lifestyle. X-rated movies and magazines are available on every island. The sexual fiction of yesterday is the reality of today. Magazines displayed in bookstores, service stations and supermarkets present articles featuring unmarried couples living together. Sex manuals advocate extramarital affairs. Fewer and fewer teenagers leave high school as virgins. Primetime television flaunts homosexuality and infidelity. The prophet Jeremiah lamented the sinfulness of his day and echoed the times in which we are living: "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord." (Jer. 6:15) We are relentlessly bombarded with immoral suggestions by the world in which we live. Consequently, there has been a tragic decline in the standard of moral excellence among the public generally and even in Christian circles. There is a low view of personal holiness as evidenced by the fact that many believers no longer blush at the blatant portrayal of an immoral lifestyle on television or in magazines. Have we become too tolerant of what we watch or allow to be watched on the television in our homes? Are we as discriminating in restricting the kind of magazines or bestsellers we read or allow to be read in our homes? It is imperative that the church speak loudly and boldly for the standard of holiness God requires of his own. The church must become once again the champion of moral purity. "He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:14) This scripture and countless others exhort the believer in Christ to a life of practical holiness which exceeds the "righteousness of the Pharisees" and the moral mores of contemporary society. Moral purity is more than a codified list of do's and don'ts; it is an attitude of the degenerated heart which is reflected in our thoughts, words and deeds. (1.) Moral purity is a command of God "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God." (Lev. 20:7). "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect" (Mat. 5:48). "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." (I Peter 1:15, 16) There can be no question but that God expects and demands moral purity of his children. (2.) Moral purity is the will of God "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God..For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." (1 Thes. 4:3-7). Since no one is immune to sin, no one is free from the struggle for moral purity. The Greek word for fornication is pornei, which refers to any kind of intimate sexual encounter engaged with anyone apart from one's spouse. It includes intimate encounters with the opposite sex or with the same sex. It includes adultery, homosexuality and fornication. The basis for abstaining from fornication is the fact that our body is a temple of the holy ghost and we are to glorify God in our body. (I Cor. 6:19, 20). (3) Moral purity is present evidence of our salvation The epistle of James warns there is such a thing as dead faith - a faith that goes no further than the profession of one's lips having no influence on one's conduct. True faith will show itself by its fruit. The one sure evidence that we are saved and in Christ and he is in us is a life of holiness. Heaven is a holy place and is occupied by holy creatures. Holiness is written on everything in heaven. The pleasures of heaven are not the same as the world's pleasures; the tastes of heaven not the same as the world's tastes. If one is uncomfortable with holiness here, he or she would not be comfortable in heaven. We must be heavenly-minded and have heavenly tastes in this life, or else we shall never find ourselves in heaven, in the life to come.