Holiness Cont'd ---- Psalm 26

Yesterday, Sunday, I made an entry on this blog regarding “holiness”. A thought that I want to continue here.

It is one thing to think about holiness as an “objective” that we are striving for in our Christian life. It is quite another to determine how we flesh that out in our day to day walk. After all, isn’t that where it really matters?

Now I suppose the first thing that I struggle with is that word “holy”. It is something I am very comfortable ascribing to God. It is not something I am at all comfortable ascribing to me or any other human being. I think primarily because of the way we’ve denigrated that term over time to mean either “holier than thou” or “holy cow”. I’m not sure which! Plus, you do not have to dig very deep to find the non-holy in any of us, past or present, so it somehow deflates the fullness of the term.

Psalm 26 and the NLT translation of verse 2 is a good example of what I am attempting to explain. Here is how the NLT puts it:

Put me on trial, Lord, and cross- examine me.
Test my motives and my heart.

If we bounce that idea up against the concept of “holiness”, who can stand? Any good prosecutor could peal away our claims in a heartbeat. My gosh, even David would find it hard not to squirm on the “witness stand” under cross-examination when questioned about his affair and how that squared with walking “in faithfulness to (God)”. (v3b) The truth is, none of us, no not one, could stand up under the scrutiny where it to come to that. We are sinners. We were before we came to Christ and we are until the day we die.

Our only defense would be that very thing the psalmist claims, God’s steadfast love and of course what we have come to know as the cleansing blood of Christ for sins past, present and those that will surely come.

So what’s a man to do? How can I live a life that will stand up to scrutiny given my nature and what surrounds me. Verses three and twelve give me the components I need:

* Keep God’s steadfast love ever before me
* Walk-- step by step, day by day -- with integrity and faithfulness to God
* When necessary, seek out God’s redemption and gracious love
* Plant my feet on level ground (scripture, fellowship, prayer, mentor)

Father God, I can not do this without your love and grace. Redeem me and be gracious to me. May I have the strength and courage to walk in faithfulness to you – today, and let all the tomorrows wait their turn. May it be.

Now how does that life look?

Is it a life of isolation, insulated from everything around me that might corrupt or tarnish this “holiness”? Is it expressed in my dress, my speech, my actions, my social circles? The way I cut my hair, whether or not I have tattoos; display a rebel flag; ride a motorcycle; drink a beer; eat oysters; or read People magazine?

Am I less “holy” if I wear jeans and boots to church, buy stock in P & G, or support the war in Iraq?

Whose standard are we going to use yours or mine? God’s! – Which ones, the Old Testament or New Testament or both? The “rules” that are non-culturally specific or all of them? If we manage to center everything on the greatest commandment, could we call it a done deal? Or should we just settle on the “fruit of the Spirit” and call it good? Or do we need more?

It’s pretty obvious, I don’t have any answers. Well actually I do, maybe. Paul says to “abstain from every form of evil” (1TH 5:22). That could be a good start. I think most of us know evil when we see it. If not, maybe we should go back to verse twenty one where Paul says to “test everything”. If in doubt test it, if still in doubt, walk away!

Oh my…this could get rather involved. So I’ll let it rest for now. I’m going back to THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT; I think I might see things more clearly there.