Wholeness: impatient extremists

As I have said elsewhere, humanity is a species of extremes. When the church sees people going to the extreme of self-indulgence in the misguided pursuit of a full life; as well as the ensuing consequences that lead to death. We automatically assume that the opposite extreme must be true. Hence, the practice of making Christianity all about a joyless, and dispassionate existence. Let's face it, when we make holiness about righteousness only, there really isn't room for much else. So this opposite extreme is ultimately a dreary, fruitless, and doctrinally unsound existence. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The irony of these extremists is that they are often accusing the other side of preaching an incomplete gospel. Despite that their gospel is also just as incomplete, with it lacking in love and grace; just as their notion of holiness is incomplete. Since their theology, as practiced, only seeks to avoid death not seek wholeness, or embrace life. How can you preach a gospel with so little "good news" to it? This extremism often leads people back to the opposite extreme of worldliness again.

There is more to life under the gospel than just being a good girl or a nice guy. Just as there is more to holiness than just righteousness. Until we embrace all three dimensions of holiness, we will be stuck in this pendulum of opposite extremes. Doesn't John 10:10 say Christ came so that we may have life in abundance? Just as Jeremiah 29:11 says God has plans to prosper us. Where John 14:12 says those who believe will do great works. None of this fits in with the single dimension definition of holiness as righteousness only.

As self-destructive as sin is, it is often engaged in a misguided attempt to fill the lack of wholeness in our life. By simply removing sin, we widen the gaps in the voids, leaving us to feel even less whole. (Matthew 12:43-45) Where the best method of dealing with sin is to replace it with something good. (Galatians 5:16, Romans 8:13) Yet many churches, offer only the blanket answer of Jesus to this problem, with no practical application. This leads me to wonder, do they really understand what God means by an abundant life of prosperity and purpose? Or how to seek wholeness. Or have we let our feeble understanding of life and holiness caused us to settle for far less than what Christ wanted for us. Or defining our goals in life no differently than the world does. Which hasn't delighted or inspired the outside world in the slightest since we aren't "set apart" this way.

God really does have a plan for your life, but you do not find it via extremism. You find it along the way of pursuing the full spectrum of holiness, not before, or even after. But, if we try to raise the roof of righteousness on the house of holiness before we've raised all the walls, don't be surprised if it all comes crashing down on you. However, we can preassemble some of the rafters before the walls are done. Yet, it often seems like extremists are expecting people to raise the roof before the concrete on the foundation is even dry yet. As a friend of mine told me, after first finding salvation, the first thing a pastor asked him was. "Have you stopped sinning?" I dare say this is not an isolated incident, and the transformative process of holiness gets denied far too often.

We must learn to seek our creator, and teach others to do the same. Only he can reveal the places of brokenness in our life, only he can heal our emotional wounds, only he knows what can truly fill the voids in our life. Only he knows where we fit in the body of Christ. Only he can tell us what it means to live in abundance. It's not an easy or quick answer, but it's a real one.

“True Christians are very like oaks, which take years to reach their maturity: many March winds blow through them before they are well rooted, and oftentimes tempest, and flood, and drought, and hurricane exercise their tremendous powers upon them.” -Charles Spurgeon

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