{"id":271,"date":"2020-02-11T08:35:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/?p=271"},"modified":"2020-02-10T17:47:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T01:47:49","slug":"the-relational-must","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/2020\/02\/11\/the-relational-must\/","title":{"rendered":"The Relational Must"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cStrive . . . for the holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.\u201d<\/p>Hebrews 12:14, ESV<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There are not too many\ntopics in Scripture that demand our attention like holiness. Growing up in the Bible-belt,\nI remember hearing the standard mantra for holiness: “don’t smoke, drink,\nor chew or go with girls who do.” Holiness as a limited series of\nexpectations for individual morality was the standard perception then, and\nremains popular in many circles today. Aside from the obvious problems with the\nabove clich\u00e9, this limited and individualistic emphasis misrepresents the\nearliest testimony of holiness in Leviticus. In Leviticus, God\u2019s covenant\npeople were to have a specific interpretation of reality\u2014namely, that the one\nGod of all creation is their God. By extension, they were to have a consistent\nvision of their society, where the community reflected the character of the\nredeeming creator God. Thus, holiness is a thick community category, deeply\nrelational and holistically expressed. Here, I want to address what is in my\nmind the most important aspect of holiness: At its heart, holiness is\nrelational. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holiness: The Relational\nEthic<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Relational attachment is\na powerful and life-altering thing. The reason (by God’s grace) that I have\nnever cheated on my wife has far less to do with the possibility that I might\nget caught and far more to do with my attachment to my wife, my children, and\nmy congregation. In other words, these relationships powerfully shape my\nidentity and ethics. I live my life as a man married to Angela. Her unique\npresence in my life directs my decisions with money, time, resources, as well\nas governs my relationships with other women. There isn’t a way I could live\noutside of that attachment without implicitly or explicitly denying her value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, holiness is\nthe ethic that emerges out of the life-changing relationship with the God of\nIsrael\u2014relationship built on His redemption, provision, and guidance. Holiness\nis the community ethic of those God redeemed from “the house of\nslavery.” In Exodus 19:4-6, when God refers to Israel as a “holy\nnation,” He refers to the fact that He has chosen, redeemed, and led them\nto Himself at Sinai. Holiness is not something imposed upon a group of people\nwho don’t know God as redeemer, sustainer, and guide. Any idea of holiness that\nskips over the passionate and life-changing notion of redemption is empty\nmoralism that either leads from, or to, a self-righteous and self-preserving\nlife. Rather, the vibrant reality of God as redeemer, sustainer, and friend,\nwhich continually engineers trust and “land conquering” ambition also\ncreates holiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relational aspect of\nholiness appears clearly in Leviticus 18-20, which is at the heart of the\nHoliness Code (Leviticus 17-26). Due to His self-initiated attachment to\nIsrael, God’s holiness shapes his people\u2019s ethical life (“I am holy”\n\u2013 Lev 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:26: 21:8). Leviticus 18:2-4 distinguishes between the\nlife and ethics of Israel and the surrounding cultures, embodied in Egypt (the\nplace from which God liberated them) and Canaan (the place to which God would\ndeliver them). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text further\nemphasizes the reason they are to avoid common cultural ethics; God is their God\nand that changes them. Israel must remain noticeably different from the nations\nat specific points or they display God to be a common ancient deity. Moses\nexplicitly states this relational motivation in Lev 19:2, “You shall be\nholy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (ESV) Israel\u2019s ethical shape is the\ndirect result of their attachment to God. God then sets forth a list of\ncommandments punctuating each with the phrase, “I am the Lord,” or an\napproximate modification of the phrase. Thus, God commands his people to be\nholy in light of his unique identity and attachment to them (Lev 19:37). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Testament writers also followed this logic when discussing holiness. A few verses from the apostles should suffice to demonstrate this pattern:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.\u201d<\/p> (2 Cor. 7:1, ESV) <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Paul has just reiterated the promise of God\u2019s presence among believers. These promises for Christians from their <\/em>God engineer \u201cbringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.\u201d Paul\u2019s reference to the \u201cfear of God\u201d further emphasizes the relational nature of this attempt at holiness. Only Christians have this sense about them. It is the most normal human response to not fear God (Romans 3:18). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201c<\/sup>For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.\u201d <\/p> Heb. 12:10, ESV <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The author of Hebrews\njust explained the beauty of fathers who discipline not random children but\ntheir own sons (and presumably daughters). God, our Father, the one who loves\nus more than any earthly parent, disciplines His<\/em> children so they can share in His holiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer continues, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTherefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and<\/sup> make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”<\/p> (Heb. 12:12-14, ESV)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In other words – \u201ctherefore,\u201d\nbecause of the love of the Father, strengthen yourselves, embrace wisdom and\nclarity as to how to live, strive for peace and for holiness, without which no\none will see the Lord. It would be almost intuitive to see this as a command\nfor a particular moral package that earns salvation. However, if holiness is\nthe fruit of a relationship with the triune God, as both the Old Testament and\nNew Testament teach, then this admonition calls for clear and thorough\nadjudication of one\u2019s life for relational fruit rather than personal moral\ncertainty.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holiness doesn’t ask,\n“What is the world doing and being?” and then conclude that we must\ndo or be the opposite. Genuine holiness doesn\u2019t operate off of a contrived list\nof behaviors that may only partially be representative of Biblical wisdom.\nThese approaches to holiness are brutally thin and provide no impetus for\nGod-glorifying, self-denying living. Furthermore, anybody can do that. Grace-created\nredemption, sustenance, and shelter, along with God’s continual presence in our\nmidst births a natural sense of actual holiness in God\u2019s redeemed people. To\nlive in any other way would deny the value of the ever-present God who redeemed\nyou. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we think of holiness, do we consider that, at its heart, it is relational? This post by Dr. Jeff Mooney shows why its important that we do. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mooney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}