Chapter 1 - Be Holy As I Am Holy (Part 3 of 4)

 

“Set Apart” = “Different”

Besides being “consecrated,” as we learned last week, to be “set apart” also means to be “different.” Not in a crazy, color-your-hair-bright-orange-with-piercings-all-over-your-face kind of different. Not in a loud, theatrical, “I did it my way,” manner, Frank Sinatra-style. Not in a “This is me!” (So, you better accept me as I am) kind of different we hear portrayed in today’s music and values. These examples of individuality running rampant in modern culture are displays of how those antithetical to God set themselves apart. This was the sin of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They loved to pray while being seen (Matthew 6:5). They loved to give with great fanfare (Matthew 6:1). They loved to tell others what to do while not practicing what they preached (Matt. 23:2-3).

Yet, God’s desire is completely the opposite. Jesus said we should pray in private and not prattle on (Matthew 6:6-8). Our giving should be done “secretly,” in a way that brings no attention to itself (Matthew 6:2-4). Instead, we should be humble and live like a slave being obedient to his or her master (Matthew 6:8-15). This is such a stark contrast to what the religious leaders of Jesus’s day taught.

Being “set apart” by God and thus considered “holy” in His eyes denotes a life committed to mirroring His Word in everyday living. In other words, to “be holy as God is holy,” we must be set apart unto Him and Him alone. Not unto ourselves. Not unto our spouses. Not unto our children. Not unto our relatives nor our friends. Not unto our colleagues. Not unto our fans, businesses, nor jobs. Not unto our political affiliations, our sociological beliefs, nor financial establishments. Not unto our country. Not even unto our religious beliefs, our pastors, or places of worship. Not unto anything else or anybody else but God, as a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus was very clear about this (cf. Matthew 10:37-39; Luke 14:26-27; John 12:25-26). The New Testament writers were as well (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Peter 1:13-2:3; 1 John 2:15-17). No one or no thing can be loved equally with or more so than God. To do so is to commit idolatry.¹

The Challenge of This Series

As we move forward, studying the Creation Account and the Sermon on the Mount, we will be examining each and every passage through the eyes of the Almighty as we examine His Word. Through His command of what it means to be “holy,” “set apart,” “different,” “consecrated.”  

This means we will have to tackle some tough subjects. We’ll have to navigate some rough waters. Those Christians who consider themselves liberals, progressives, or conservatives in today’s contentious political climate will, at times, probably wish to clobber me with their “Woke” fist-pumping gestures, their “Rooseveltian” bully pulpits, and their MAGA hats. Those who champion capitalism over socialism will wish to paint me as a “bleeding-heart liberal.” Those who champion socialism over capitalism will wish to label me a “Wall Streeter” trying to flaunt my “white privilege.” Those who use social media and other media outlets to propagate their views on social issues like immigration, healthcare, war, poverty, homosexuality, and so forth, will probably get their undergarments twisted really tight too.

But it is my hope and prayer that they will take off their political, theological, social, historical, and economic hats while reading this blog, if they possibly can.

That is my challenge to the reader.

I say “challenge” because readers will find it much more difficult than they think. We say we are objective in our views, that we are critical thinkers, and some may even go so far as to say they accept all viewpoints so long as everyone can lend a hand in teaching “the world to sing in perfect harmony,” so they can “stand hand-in-hand” and hear it “echo through the hills for peace throughout the land.”² That’s what love is all about, right? Buying the world a “Coke” and being accepting of everyone? If the Beatles thought that all we needed was love, who’s to argue with that?

As we will see, though, this Pollyannaish, utopian view of how life on this planet should be is quite different from what God demands. It is causing the world, as we speak, to ready itself to be set ablaze.
It seems everyone is sitting on a powder keg these days, and some folks act as if they are powder kegs! The hostility, the venomous remarks, and the inhumane actions we see all over the world are a testimony to how weak and false the “All You Need is Love” refrain really is. The world has been teaching this particular doctrine of demons for decades throughout our universities, colleges, and sadly, even many of our seminaries, and yet the aftermath of such falsehoods is evident all around us. “All You Need Is Love” is nothing more than an empty promise apart from Almighty God and His holy standards. 

A Different Kind of Love

When you read God’s Word, examining it through His eyes, there are no labels to affix to your lapel. There are no hats to wear. There are no flags to wave. There are no banners to hang. There are no sides to join. It’s not a matter or right versus wrong. It’s not an argument of correct theology versus errant theology. It’s not a battle of white versus black, male versus female, rich versus poor, West versus East, hate versus love. It’s not “a war of ideals for the soul of a nation,” whichever your nation happens to be.

There is only God and His holiness.

There is only God and His Kingdom.

You are either a resident or not.

You either choose to live in His kingdom by His laws, or you choose to reject it all and live outside His Kingdom by whichever laws you deem correct.

All those other things we believe to be so important, like right theological thinking for sanity’s sake, social justice for society’s sake, political means for freedom’s sake, and the rest, are not the heart of Kingdom living. They are actually mantras fed to us by the evil one, mixing just enough truth with falsehood to make those who rally the troops children of hell, and those who believe those teachers doubly so (cf. Matthew 23:15; John 8:42-47).

There are only those who are “set apart” unto God, and those who are not. There’s no middle ground. This was the message of Jesus to the Church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-20 (NRSV): 

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 

The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation: I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you, and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so you can see.

I reprove and discipline those I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me.

Did you notice? Jesus was talking to a group of people who referred to themselves as a church. A body of believers. One that met in Laodicea, which was located in the region of Asia Minor, known today as the country of Turkey. They were called Christians. Or at least, that’s what they believed. However, their religious understanding of God’s Word, of being disciples of Jesus, and of being members of the Kingdom of Heaven were called out and challenged by Jesus Himself.

Did you also notice how similar their ideas of religious accomplishment and life in Christ mirror the church in America today? So many of us view ourselves as rich. We clamor to acquire wealth. Set up our nest eggs. Fatten our savings accounts.

Be the kind of believer who doesn’t have to ask anyone for anything because we’ve followed the American dream. We’ve pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps. We strive to attain financial freedom. We fight for political freedom. We are willing to die for religious freedom.

Yet, as we’ve learned in the year 2020 and after, all it takes is one global pandemic of questionable virulence, compared to other historical pandemics like the Black Plague, the Justinian Plague, or the Spanish Flu, to bring all of that “planning” to a screeching halt.

Thought for the Week:

English artist William Holman Hunt, originator of one of the most famous Christian paintings ever, The

Light of the World, captured the image of Jesus, standing at the door of the Church in Laodicea, holding a lantern and knocking. Jesus not only stands at the door of a Church, of all places, holding the light of truth, but He is knocking and requesting to be allowed inside the one body of people who should have already allowed Him in as the one true Prophet, Priest, and King.

This picture is a perfect example of how we as modern-day “believers” have it backwards, just like the Laodiceans. When we live for our little kingdoms, whatever those kingdoms may be, the King of Heaven is not present. It gets forced out because, as Jesus said, we can’t serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Our little kingdoms—whether they be family, finances, friends, business, social causes, you name it—cannot usurp God’s Kingdom and its demands.

If Jesus, who is Emanuel (“God with us”), knocks and asks to enter, then we must toss our little kingdoms to the curb like yesterday’s garbage and embrace His Kingdom alone.

Otherwise, Jesus said He would spit us out of His mouth.

Lukewarm living is never a good thing in God’s economy.

NEXT WEEK:

We will continue to examine lukewarm, Laodicean living and how that fits in today’s culture.

 

Endnotes

¹  In a very common kind of story in today’s Christianity, we learn about people, both famous people (and those not-so-much as well), who change their theology to accommodate the sin of friends and family. In other words, they do not “hate their fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, etc.,” like Jesus commanded in Matthew 10:32-39 and elsewhere. Instead, they change God’s Word and who He is to “make room in the kingdom” for their loved ones, their beloved causes, or their treasured beliefs by changing God’s Word to fit the current, cultural norms.

    Thus, by their very act, they make an idol of the loved one, the cause, or the alien belief as well as an idol of the culture, loving those people and things more than God and His Word. They try to change God and His Word to make it fit into their new “family dynamic,” their newfound “allegiance,” or their “heartfelt cause,” rather than demand that the loved one and the culture repent. For such examples of this phenomenon, see the following articles:

  -> In this particular article, a daughter and how she feels about her sin means more than God and His Word: https://www.christiantoday.com/article/jen.hatmaker.reveals.her.daughter.is.gay/135119.htm

  -> In this particular article, embracing and affirming a vocal, anti-God, anti-Christ movement that vows to fight racism with reverse-racism is more important than the truth of God’s Word: https://faithandheritage.com/2017/10/john-piper-praises-lecrae-for-leaving-evangelicalism-and-embracing-black-liberation-theology/

  -> In this particular article, the concepts of country, religious liberty, and freedom are held in higher esteem than God’s Word: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/american-christianity-is-alas-political/

 

2   “Mad Men Finale: The Real Story Behind the Coke Jingle that Became a Billboard Hit.” Billboard.com. 18 May 2015. Web. 14 June 2020:  https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6568774/mad-men-finale-buy-the-world-a-coke-song

 

 Pictures courtesy of  Pixabay and the following photographers/artists:

"Tattooed Woman" by pendleburyannette

"Pharisee" by CCXpistiavos

"Holy Bible" by Pexels"

"Hats" by hans braxmeier

"World on Fire" by Myriams Fotos

"Man on Money" by mohamad Hassan

"The Light of the World" by William Holman Hunt