Basic Christian Beliefs: Spiritual Growth and Maturity

What does a holy person look like? What images cross your mind when you hear the word “holy”? A priest in a black suit and clerical collar? A minister in a robe? Maybe you think of the “church lady” on Saturday Night Live!

Not very many people today in our postmodern world are turned on by the idea of holiness! They may think of “holy rollers” or “holier-than-thou” people. Some of us who are older can remember some of the television evangelists in the 1980’s who came across as being holy, but we found out they weren’t. Many today are suspicious of anyone who smacks of being holy. They think they are phony or not very genuine.

Yet, the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament talks about the importance of living a holy life. In fact, it says that without holiness we are not going to see God! “Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” Hebrews 12:14.

Here’s another verse to think about: 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification”. God wills our sanctification! Say what? Come again! What in the world does “sanctification” mean? When’s the last time you had a conversation with someone about sanctification?

“Sanctification” and “holiness” are similar in the Bible. Both carry the idea of being separated or set apart, consecrated to God’s use and service. For instance, in the Old Testament different vessels would be sanctified for use in the temple: curtains, tables, lamps, bowls, the altar etc. It’s kind of like how the offering plate at church is “sanctified” or set apart for service to God. We wouldn’t think (I hope) of taking it home and using it to serve popcorn or as a tray to hold nails and screws and nuts and bolts.

In a similar fashion people are holy or sanctified when they are set apart for God, dedicated to His use and service.

The question is, once we become Christians and begin this new life in Christ, what happens after that? Do we grow? Do we become better persons? Is there any goal that we are striving for? The Bible says we should strive to be holy and sanctified, fully dedicated to God.

Can we try to get the negative images about holiness out of our mind, and understand it as something positive that God wants us to become. Let’s think more about holiness and sanctification and what they mean.

First, here are some thing that holiness is not. It is not perfectionism. Perfectionism is when we think we’re always right and expect people to always tow the line like we want. Do you know any people who are perfectionists? Maybe you are one! Heaven help us if we’re married to one! You can never please these people. There is always something wrong. Well, holiness has nothing to do with perfectionism!

Secondly, being holy does not mean being a prude. Prim, proper, strait-laced, overly modest, like if you’re a holy person you will never smile or joke, never have fun, never loosen up. The Jesus I read about in the Bible was not a prude!

Nor is being holy or sanctified the same as being religious. We can be very religious and churchy, and not be a very holy person. Holiness has little to do with religious rituals and a lot to do with life and how we live it.

What is holiness? What does a holy person look like?

First of all, holiness involves a cleansing from evil. Holiness has moral content. If I’m a liar, if my mind is always in the gutter, if I’m unkind to people, if I cheat on my spouse, if I am self-centered and egotistical, I am not living in holiness! To be holy means to turn away from sin. We have already looked at I Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” However, notice what follows in the text: “That you abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (verses 3b-5).

Holiness is tied in with abstaining from what is evil. There is a similar idea in 2 Corinthians 7:1 “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.”

We are growing in holiness the more we put away sinful thoughts and desires and behaviors.

But holiness and being sanctified has a positive side to it. It has to do with our loving God, and loving people, more and more. Jesus said something that fits in here. He said, “Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5:48. The word “perfect” here does not mean to be without sin or fault. The Greek word translated “perfect” means to be mature, complete, to fulfill the purpose for which we are created. If you look at the verses prior to this verse, Jesus is talking about going the extra mile in loving people. I believe that He is telling us to be mature and complete in loving people and loving God. That’s what holiness is about!

In this series of sermons on Basic Christian Beliefs we have included some teaching on what United Methodists believe about these fundamentals of our faith. In regards to holiness and sanctification, our United Methodist tradition has some unique things to say. Other Protestant traditions teach sanctification as growth in Christ and growth in dedication to Him, but our United Methodist heritage goes further and says that we are to press on towards entire sanctification and Christian perfection.

John Wesley and the early Methodists, for example, had a zeal and enthusiasm to go on to perfection in their Christian journey! There was a comedian by the name of Mort Sahl who once quipped: “I wish I had a cause, because I’ve got a lot of enthusiasm.”

Well, early Methodists had a lot of enthusiasm, and they also had a cause! It was going on to perfection! When John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, spoke of perfection he did not mean that we could be completely free of all sin or human faults. He realized that all of us make mistakes and errors of judgment. We sometimes act in ignorance.

Rather, the perfection he said Christians are to aim at is perfection in love: where we love God and our neighbor with an earnestness and singleness of heart, where we want to do His will and please Him in everything we do, and where we act through purity of heart and motive. Wesley once said, “The perfection I teach is perfect love.”

The United Methodist Discipline, the guidebook of our denomination, includes statements from both the Methodist and EUB side of our tradition about sanctification and Christian perfection. The Methodist Articles of Religion stated: “Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement cleanseth from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are washed from its pollution, saved from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts and to walk in his holy commandments blameless.”

There is a statement that is longer and more detailed, but very similar, in the Confession of Faith of the EUB Church. There is also a statement in the present United Methodist Discipline affirming sanctification and Christian perfection as possibilities for all believers.

Perhaps this topic may seem boring and irrelevant to today’s world. However, I think this is a word for believers today! It reminds us that there is a power that can get at the root of sin and liberate us!

See, forgiveness is not enough! It is wonderful that God forgives us. But if we are forgiven, then keep committing the same sins time after time, what good is that? God wants to root the evil out of us!

What are the sins that run deep in your human nature? In mine? Ugly habits that we can’t overcome? An inability to love and forgive others? A particular vulnerability or weakness that catches us again and again? By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit we can grow and we can change!

This theme is dealt with in Romans, chapter 6. The Apostle Paul says believers have died to the old life dominated by sin, and through Jesus have experienced a new life – a rebirth!

He talks as though we are already dead to sin and freed from sin. Now Paul wasn’t an idiot! He knew Christians still sin, and he never claimed to be sinless himself. But it’s like he was saying, “You are freed from sin and have a new life in Christ – now act it out!

“We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin…so you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions…for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification…but now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life” (Romans 6:6, 10-11, 19b, 22).

There is a power to get at the root of sin and to heal and restore our fallen human nature, so that we may be consecrated to God and useful to Him!

Maybe this is a good point to ask ourselves some questions: If you and I are Christians, are we any further along spiritually than we were when we first came to Christ? Are you and I passionate in our love for God, to do what pleases God and obey everything God commands? Is the love of God so filling our hearts that we are able to love people who are hard to love? Are more and more areas of our life coming under the Lordship of Christ – our thought life, our spending habits, our giving patterns, our use of time, the way we act at home, at work, at a party? Can people around us see more of Jesus in us now than they could a year ago? Five years ago? You see, so often we don’t aim high enough!

How do we grow? How do we move towards perfection in love? It comes by God’s grace. Hebrews 13:12 “Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.” Growth towards perfection is not something we can achieve on our own. Jesus died so that we can be set free of our sins and live a life dedicated to God.

Also, living a holy life comes about by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks of Christians as those “who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ.” In the Evangelical United Brethren Confession of Faith it says, “We believe sanctification is the work of God’s grace through the Word and the Spirit.” If we will open up our life to the Spirit of God and allow Him to do what He wants in more and more areas of our life, we will be more Christ-like and more useful to God.

For me, perhaps the best description of a holy person is found in Galatians 5 where it lists the fruit of the Spirit. This is what we will be like if the Holy Spirit is in control. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Did you notice that the first of the fruits listed is love). That’s what a holy person looks like. That’s what a spiritually mature person looks like. That’s what a person dedicated to God and useful to God looks like! And there’s no reason it can’t be you and me.

Back to Archive Listing