THE QUEST FOR HOLINESS, INSTALLMENT 4: THE STRAIN

I keep turning this matter of holiness over in my spirit, and then stumbling across passages that address the subject. Today it was Philippians 3 and John 17. Maybe they are related. And maybe I’m just tired. We’ll see.

Early in the chapter, Paul comes down hard on legalism, especially circumcision. So whatever else he says in the rest of the chapter, he is not talking about getting there by means of the Law! We worship by the Spirit, not by the flesh, because righteousness that comes by means of the law amounts to absolutely nothing.

Then Paul says that he has not already obtained “this” (knowing Christ, and attaining the resurrection from the dead), or have already been made perfect. But “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” This he says he does one thing: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

In practical terms, I ask myself, “What is the strain that Paul embraces here?” It is not to keep the law better. It could be to endure persecution and finish strong in his missional calling. But in fulfilling his calling, Paul denies himself and takes on a more heavenly mindset until at last he gets a body like Christ’s glorious body.

Jesus prayed for his disciples that they would not be of the world (the temporal, the prevailing culture), though they must not be removed from it. To be in the world, but not be of the world, that is the goal. In other words, I am called to live in this world, to be aware of my culture, and yet not be “of” that culture.

Then Jesus throws in his words about holiness (“Sanctify” and “make holy” are the same word in Greek, meaning “set apart”): “Make them holy by the truth; your word is truth. . . . I make myself holy, that they too may be truly holy.” So I am made holy by the truth, while living in the world, but not of the world, by means of the truth, which is God’s word. Got it?

In my pre-postmodern days, I knew what God’s word was. Now I only know what it isn’t.
But here’s what I am getting today from this passage: I am aware of my culture, but I am not driven by it. Rather, I am set apart, as a man on a mission, temporarily passing through. All that I see and experience is being filtered by truth as defined by God, not by this world.

So, I strain to keep a heavenly perspective on all that is around me. I am not enamored by the glitter of the world, knowing that it will all burn. But souls, both my own and those of other people, will live forever, so I strain to make use of my sojourn here on this planet to better prepare for eternity.