Dangerous holiness

[fhansen]

As I’ve come to understand the Christian gospel, holiness or righteousness are equivalent to the virtue of love, which is why the Greatest Commandments are what they are, and this also gives meaning to the need for our being transformed into the image of God (2 Cor 2:18), Who *is *love (1 John 4:8). Because, additionally, “…love fulfills the Law” (Rom 13:8). To the extent that we’re perfected in love (1John 4:18), we’re holy. IOW, man’s justice- that which makes him just- is defined by love.

In any case I believe that, if we conceptually detach holiness and love from each other to any degree, which is very easy to do IMO (legalism is one way that comes to mind), we run into danger. I don’t believe that any of the monistic religions, for example, could support any of the more heinous treatments of humanity against humanity that we’ve witnessed past and present, performed in the name of God, if we genuinely understood that human personal holiness was actually defined by love.

In this world, our definition of holiness, what it means to be* right *in basic terms, greatly matters. Thoughts?

 

[tweedlealice]

Hi,
I had just replied but it really wasn’t the topic. When I asked Jesus in my heart and made Him Lord of my life, I was on the mountain top. It was good news. I was telling everyone in my family and friends. My husband told my kids I was crazy and tolerate me. We are such excited spiritual children at that time. No discernment of who to tell and when to tell. So, my family believes but don’t go to church and I have one atheist after her husband was KIA in Iraq at age 24. So, that is dangerous.
I was going to church daily w a Bible study and a Charismatic prayer group. I was basically humble BUT I noticed it was easy for me to have a clean mouth and thoughts. I harbored no hate or anger. Forgiveness was easy. I noticed a little pride sneaking up on me. Being humbly righteous in the Lord vs. proud are 2 different things. So, I went out and bought an alcoholic drink from a bar. I felt that brought me back to my humanity. I was definitely out of this world. So, what gifts I have, I share when appropriate. I do refer to myself as God’s little brown wren. My sins are sins of omission." Alice, I wanted you to do this then, etc."
So, I am studying Sr.Faustina and the Chaplet of Mercy. I had a NDE 2 months ago. My last thoughts were,“Jesus forgive me for my sins.” So, I thought this was a good practice run. I just need to ask for forgiveness and mercy.
Joyfully, dellivering our good news is dangerous. Getting immersed in a Holy life can be too much if you have a family. If you have pride sneaking in and you don’t see it,
is dangerous.
in Christs’love,
tweedlealice

 

[fhansen]

Hi,
I had just replied but it really wasn’t the topic. When I asked Jesus in my heart and made Him Lord of my life, I was on the mountain top. It was good news. I was telling everyone in my family and friends. My husband told my kids I was crazy and tolerate me. We are such excited spiritual children at that time. No discernment of who to tell and when to tell. So, my family believes but don’t go to church and I have one atheist after her husband was KIA in Iraq at age 24. So, that is dangerous.
I was going to church daily w a Bible study and a Charismatic prayer group. I was basically humble BUT I noticed it was easy for me to have a clean mouth and thoughts. I harbored no hate or anger. Forgiveness was easy. I noticed a little pride sneaking up on me. Being humbly righteous in the Lord vs. proud are 2 different things. So, I went out and bought an alcoholic drink from a bar. I felt that brought me back to my humanity. I was definitely out of this world. So, what gifts I have, I share when appropriate. I do refer to myself as God’s little brown wren. My sins are sins of omission." Alice, I wanted you to do this then, etc."
So, I am studying Sr.Faustina and the Chaplet of Mercy. I had a NDE 2 months ago. My last thoughts were,“Jesus forgive me for my sins.” So, I thought this was a good practice run. I just need to ask for forgiveness and mercy.
Joyfully, dellivering our good news is dangerous. Getting immersed in a Holy life can be too much if you have a family. If you have pride sneaking in and you don’t see it,
is dangerous.
in Christs’love,
tweedlealice

Thank you-and all of what you said is true-and many share your experiences. You speak of a different “dangerous holiness”, one that came up yesterday in an RCIA Catechist training class. We need to speak the truth in love and humility-but speaking the truth, no matter how it’s said, can be dangerous for us in this world. We could even say that this is what caused Jesus to be crucified, adamantly speaking the truth regardless of man’s preference for blindness. And pride, OTOH, is another danger altogether, of course, because it can and will derail or compromise our walk with God.

I was thinking of another danger in this world, however, one that’s becoming more dangerous to the world’s citizens daily, and that’s “false holiness”, which really is related to pride after all as it consists of human self-righteousness in its most insidious form; people sincerely justifying all kinds of ugly behavior in the name of God.

 

[fhansen]

I believe the Christian faith could be fairly summed up with the following: “I, God, am love, and I love humankind beyond its ability to imagine. I’ll forgive your sins and My only command to you then is,‘Thou Shall Love Also’, and I’ll help you accomplish this if you turn and follow Me, if you commune with Me, because ‘apart from Me you can do nothing’. To the extent that you love you won’t sin.” That’s the New Covenant in a nutshell.

Love causes obedience. If Christians truly adhered to their faith, to the gospel of love, they’d never cause harm to their neighbor. But what of other religions? Many religions teach obedience to God, obedience to commands in general, whatever they may be. When holiness = obedience only, then our actions will follow our definition of obedience, we’ll act in whatever way we think God demands. We’ll consider holiness or righteousness to be whatever obedience is taught to “look like”, even if that obedience, in our minds, might include slaying our neighbor. But if holiness=love first of all, then we could never slay a neighbor. IMO a very different religion in the end, Christianity.