Wholeness: Abide

As I begin to wrap up this series, let me make one thing perfectly clear, if I haven’t quite done that already. It is very easy to get the goal of holiness mixed up with the means and exercises it takes to become holy. Consider these words of Jesus and what they reveal about the result versus the means.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prune so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.-John 15:1-10

We do not mature as disciples by forcing growth. Instead, the fruitful Christian life is the natural result of focusing on Jesus in a sincere way, and being mindful of his inevitable "pruning" in our lives. (James 1:2-12) Just as we cannot force trees to produce fruit overnight, we cannot coerce holiness by enforcing a definition by the strength of the flesh. (1st Corinthians 3:6-7) Our main goal in discipleship is to abide in Christ or dwell with Jesus to use simpler terms. By actively seeking Christ, we find the path to wholeness. By enduring the path to wholeness, we eventually arrive at the path to righteousness. As we walk the path of Righteousness, the path of purpose in God's kingdom which we are set apart is revealed. Thus, the cycle of three-dimensional holiness is engaged. Are you truly walking with Jesus, or just observing from afar?

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But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. -Matthew 6:33

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” -Matthew 19:25-26

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. -Philippians 4:12-14 (written from prison FYI)

Wholeness: Cyclical

The other day I was reminded of why I am putting so much effort into this series when I saw an Instagram post that said something like “Christianity isn’t about joy, prosperity, or fulfillment, but holiness.” If this person truly understood the full scope and cyclical nature of holiness he would realize that holiness is spiritual prosperity, and that leads to joy and fulfillment as we find our place in God’s kingdom. Such a bleak perception of the gospel. A perception rooted more in human understanding and pride than righteousness. Which only delights and inspires those who want to claim religious superiority over others, not help the lost as we were set apart for.

It also took me back to a previous series Complexity where I address the atheist claim that religion is inadequate to answer life’s complex questions. If we oversimplify holiness and only address it as a standard of righteousness, we need only define and enforce the standard. Which is indeed inadequate to truly counter mankind’s fallen nature at its root. This is also how things like love, forgiveness, and grace get neglected. Leaving the gospel incomplete and too simple to address life’s difficulties. Without grace and what goes with it, Christianity really is no different than any other simplistic pagan belief. The question is, why are so many trying to make Christianity more like the other beliefs of the world?

So let me lay out the cycle of holiness for you so you know what I mean by spiritual prosperity. We need to first find wholeness to live the righteous life since it’s our brokenness, that derails our ability to live the way of righteousness. As we walk the path of righteousness, our purpose for which we are set apart comes into greater focus as the spirit guides us. (Psychologists have found that those who seek a meaningful life are much happier than those who seek happiness for happiness' sake do. Not all psychologists appreciate these findings, especially those following the unproven theories of Abraham Maslow. Yet the evidence doesn’t lie, living out your philanthropic purpose does indeed lead to more fulfillment than self-centeredness does.) As this cycle is engaged we are in a better position to maintain our wholeness. Maintaining our wholeness means we are in a good position to maintain our righteousness. If we continue to maintain our righteousness, we can put more energy into what we were set apart for, and actually expand God’s kingdom as a result.

It takes three elements to produce this cycle. Try to leave anything out, you will stagnate. Or worse yet find yourself in a self-destructive cycle, causing you to believe that there is no room for, joy, prosperity, or fulfillment in your one-dimensional overly simplistic faith. Which has only driven people away from the church in droves. You often hear people say we need to break self-destructive cycles. But perhaps what we really need to do is replace it with a holy one.

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The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. -Psalm 19:8

Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.-Psalm 41:1

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” - Acts 5:32

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. -John 16:13

Wholeness: Unconditioal?

We live in a world that often equates unconditional love with unconditional acceptance. While it may sound great on the surface, it really does potentially open us up to some traumatic things if we make the concept as all-inclusive as the terminology demands. For example, if a person finds out that their spouse is being unfaithful to them, they may still love them unconditionally. However, few would expect them to accept the ongoing betrayal. If a person's spouse is being physically abusive to them, they may still love them unconditionally despite that. Again, unconditional love should not require that they accept the violent treatment without question. If someone is convicted of a terrible crime, they may have parents who still love them unconditionally. This does not mean that the parents have to accept or rationalize their child's crime. If we discover our child is being molested by a family member, we should under no circumstances accept that at all let alone unconditionally.

In the same way, God loves you unconditionally, yet he doesn't necessarily accept everything you do. In the end, because of his love for you, he wants you to be whole again. That means he can't accept anything that is hampering you spiritually, just as a mortal parent will not accept their child's shortsighted, selfish, and immature choices. Granted, our mortal parents can often project their fears and insecurities onto their children when wrangling their kids choices. So mistakes are often made. Meaning we can sometimes project those negative experiences onto God. However, God isn't prone to such shortcomings, so we should always take his discipline seriously, and recognize it as beneficial.

Unconditional love is simply not basing it on performance. Meaning it is not only offered to those who we deem worthy since the lost need loving guidance the most. Being unconditional also means not withdrawing love because of a failure, but rather helping people through the trial. If anything, attaching such conditions to our love has probably left us longing for this unconditional acceptance that has tainted our love.

I hope this puts things into greater perspective. That this notion of blind acceptance often stems from an attitude of expecting the world to change to meet you where you are just so you don't have to change yourself. An attitude of wanting to avoid the growing pains of maturity. An attitude of fear that keeps us from facing the brokenness in our spirit. Such attitudes often stand in the way of real personal progress, and ultimately wholeness. Without wholeness, we cannot achieve complete holiness, and without holiness, we fall short of true spiritual prosperity. The lack of understanding of this point can lead us to find relief in toxic relationships that expect us to accept things that ultimately only damages our wholeness even more. The people who truly love you would never expect you to accept that.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. -Psalm 103:8-12

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One of the ways the rejection sensitive says I love you. While the concept of rejection sensitivity is easy enough to understand, their behavior is not. While they are capable of being warm and caring when the relationship they are in feels secure. They can turn quite hostile and controlling when they do not feel secure. The irony of this is that they often destroy the very thing they are trying to preserve. While they expect you to accept them unconditionally, they will not offer you the same.

Wholeness: Becoming

In my Heart of Worship video, I said that holiness is something that you become, not just something that you do. This is a critical detail in the creed of Christianity. Not understanding this distinction is at the center of so many common errors in our discipleship, as well as failures as a church. So I think we should have a closer look at this detail.

If holiness were simply a matter of what we did then our motivations wouldn't matter at all. Yet, scripture is clear that where our heart is at does matter. Yet, if we believe that sincerity is unimportant in the actions of others. It can lead us to force submission. We do see people in the church trying to force righteous actions continually. We see it in everything from on an individual level, to petitioning the government to make laws to force holy behavior. Obviously, their approach indicates that they believe if you force a person's behavior to be right, then they will be by default in the right. Despite that their heart is not in it, that's it's not sincere, that the change is more about being bullied into it, than pleasing God. Such things definitely do not please God, only shortsighted people. (Matthew 15:17-20, Mark 7:6)

Looking at holiness as an action instead of an inner change often leads us to only look at the surface of people, as well as their sin. This leads us to rank righteousness by visibility, and mere appearances. Leading us to make the biggest deal about what is the most noticeable, but giving little consideration of what takes effort to discern. The problem with basing righteousness on appearances is that it is easily faked. Manipulative people know this if only more church people understood this. Look at any church that treats holiness merely as only something you do, instead of becoming. You will likely find more than a few well-dressed fakes. (John 7:24, 1st Samuel 16:7)

Living by the appearance model of holiness tends to make us act very judgmental. Those that only look at the surface will never consider the brokenness behind the sin. Trying to change the actions of others without dealing with the brokenness behind them is like trying to fix a person with two broken legs by pushing them out of their wheelchair. It is unhelpful and just plain cruel. Yet, we are essentially just pushing people over and attempting to take away their emotional crutches by judging them for their actions. That is not how a true disciple should operate. Jesus was so very clear about this one, yet it's an often neglected teaching. If we better understood three-dimensional holiness, we would be better equipped to not violate this truth, because we would realize that holiness is really something you become and not just do. (Matthew 7)

This leads to my final point. The fact that righteousness is but one aspect of holiness, and wholeness is another, really brings this concept home. It illustrates that acting righteous is connected to becoming whole. Yet it's no wonder that all the impatient, unkind, rude, critical, unloving, and judgmental teachers try to bypass the concept of wholeness by only addressing our behavior and appearances. Yet, we wonder why the church is lacking in power and influence. Well, I don't wonder at all. Mere surface righteousness won't really delight and inspire anyone. It won't change or transform anyone either. So nobody is becoming truly holy that way, the best we can hope for is whitewashed righteousness. At worst people are only going to resent the church and everything we stand for, which is happening with alarming frequency. Consider this passage.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. -Matthew 23:25-26

Notice the wording. It doesn't just say start with the inside, then move to the outside. It says clean the inside, and the outside is clean by default. Unlike the reverse order that people tend to gravitate to that leaves the job incomplete. So if you treat holiness only as something you do, you will naturally neglect the wholeness part of it. Then, your cup is likely still full of hidden brokenness and sin. So I challenge you to take a long hard look at what's in your vessel. It may just explain why you are so unloving, critical, and judgmental of the lost. If you dealt with your own faults, then you might actually know how to address the specks from the eyes of the lost in a Christ-like way.

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Wholeness: The truth is blood red

Some people say the truth is black and white, many of them being Christian educators and theologians. So let me outline black and white doctrine for you in the most literal sense. Righteousness should be rewarded, wickedness should be punished, period. There really is no room for much else with such a rigid definition. So it’s no wonder that is the world’s stark perception of the church and feels unwelcome in it.

When we hold to a strictly black and white doctrine, we don't really leave room for forgiveness since we just haven't earned it. Maybe that is why legalists deny it to others, they don't believe they deserve it and expect them to earn it through obedience. So they condemn sinners for their failures, instead of offering the forgiveness we ourselves rely on. We could never truly make restitution for all the people we have treated so badly for the sake of self. Not to mention shutting the door to the kingdom of God in their faces. (Matt. 5:22, 6:33 & 23:13)

According to strictly black and white theology, only the righteous deserve love. So no wonder legalists are so hateful, choosing to be contemptuous of the lost. Yet, if God denied us, love, we would be left to the wolves for straying from the path of patience, kindness, politeness, and agape. (Luke 15:1-7)

In a strictly black and white view of Christianity, holiness has but the singular dimension of holiness that is righteousness. Denying that it is built upon a foundation of wholeness, or it setting us apart for a place in God's kingdom beyond just obedience. Yet, we wonder why people are knocked over so easily with only one leg to stand on. (Matthew 15:17-20 & 23:25-26, Romans 12:3-8)

For many of these strict people, they know of such concepts, but they are not put into action; they are just given lip service. (Matthew 15:8) For that reason, their gospel is functionally incomplete.

That is why I never say the truth is black and white. Rather I say the truth is black and white and red all over. It is the red blood of Christ that blots out the darkness and allows us to approach God despite our sin. It's the red blood that wipes the slate clean and gives us a chance to start over. What but the unconditional love of God would he offer up the cleansing blood of Christ to such undeserving people such as us? (2nd Timothy 1:9) So if we dare call ourselves Christ-like, we cannot deny forgiveness and love to the undeserving. Who are we to expect people to live up to a standard, yet not show them the way to do just that as Christ did for us? (Ephesians 4:11-13) For our hearts need to be renewed, to make way for a transformation of the mind to have any genuine desire to seek said standard. (Ezekiel 11:19-20, Romans 12:1-2) It's only through the red blood of Christ who grants us access to the Holy Spirit, which gives us the strength to do what we cannot in the flesh. (John 16:7) Again, nothing but the red blood of Jesus makes any of this possible. Not a critical black and white standard that only defines right and wrong and judges those who fail to live up to it in the strength of the mere flesh. (Matthew 7:1-12)

The Old Testament was the sad story of the Israelites failures to live up to a black and white standard. Yet, we want to continue to live out this same scenario without the benefit of the tools granted to us by the New Covenant. Tools that can make us whole again, tools that can dramatically change the course of our story, the red tools of renewal and rebirth.

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Wholeness: Backsliding

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”-Luke 11:24-26

This is one of a handful of the sayings of Jesus where he uses rather dark imagery. Which begs the question why? It doesn't seem to go with how we try to portray him. As some have suggested, by speaking in parable and figures of speech he separated those who were genuinely seeking truth, and those who just wanted easy answers. Also, being a disciple of Christ and seeking holiness is not a surface pursuit. If you can't go to the effort of discerning a simple parable, you won't likely get very far in righteousness either. So it only seems fair to assume, he saved the ghastly imagery that people would tend to shy away from, for the most profound truths. Let's face it, humanity has a bad habit of getting hung up on the surface. To this day, the most outspoken people are often just reacting emotionally to the surface, instead of acting rationally to the heart of the issue. Trying to explain anything to such people is really like casting "pearls before swine." (Matt 7:6) to use another of his blunt sayings. As disciples, we should strive for better.

So naturally, this passage reveals an important truth and one that says something about how wholeness is vital to our holiness. It’s a truth I’ve touched on before, but let’s take it head-on by tackling this creepy passage.

The first implication is that simply getting rid of evil is inadequate by itself. As dysfunctional as sin is, it's still a far cry from nonfunctional. Is this not what legalists do and teach? They think since righteousness is the ultimate goal, we need to focus on that alone, and not worry about replacing what we removed with something functional to guide people to wholeness. What if the person who built the foundation of your house thought way. Since concrete is the most valuable part, let's skip the forms and steel reinforcement and call it good enough. That would lead to a sloppy and weak foundation. Everything we tried to build on it would suffer as a result.

Consider what the passage says about the impure spirit itself. While you may think who cares about the impure spirits' motivations? This is often our same attitude towards our sin. Who cares why it's there, it doesn't belong, get rid of it, end of the story. Well, Jesus took the time to say something about it, so there must be an important detail relayed by it. His exact words are "it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it." There are real longings behind our sin, and they can make us restless and unable to rest easily. If we don't find a righteous place to direct these passions, they will manifest in unholy ways because of this restlessness. We need to be more strategic in dealing with our sin, because we won't find wholeness, otherwise.

Then, Jesus goes on to warn us what will happen if we don't heed the implications of his words. We can end up far worse than before. Backsliding is a real thing, and it's a strong indicator that we haven't found our ultimate wholeness yet. Without wholeness, our righteousness will just not stick.

With that being said, let me remind you of the truth behind the truth of this series. Wholeness is but one leg in the tripod of holiness. Take but one leg away, and it all collapses. Just like there is more than one dimension to dealing with sin. If we just remove it without dealing with the voids it leaves behind, it all collapses. We really need to approach it smarter, not harder as the legalists tend to. Fix the proverbial cracks in the walls that the impure spirits are sneaking in through. Then, we will find true holiness.

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Wholeness: Restoration

Classic car TV shows that revolve around customization, and restorations are all the rage right now. Many of their client’s starter cars are total junkers too. As bad as they may be, at least they know exactly what they are getting into. Sometimes they start with a car that's already been restored. Yet, often when they find one of these so-called "restored" cars, the work is only surface. This can be an even bigger problem than a rust bucket. There are many backyard mechanics that just do not have the means or talent to do a proper restoration. Often, piling on a ton of filler putty into dents, instead of repairing them properly. Painting over rust, instead of welding in new metal. Not straightening out frame and body issues, nor replacing beat-up trim and badging.

The point I’m getting at is our search for wholeness is often like these restorations. We can take the long difficult path to full on, down to every nut and bolt restoration. Seeking to work out our salvation completely. (Phil 2:12) Or we can do a sloppy backyard mechanic job with our discipleship. Then hope nobody looks too close, or that the floor doesn’t completely rust out from under you.

There are a few things we need to remember when engaging in the restoration of wholeness. The first is to seek God. (Psalm 14:2, Matt 6:33) Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God put eternity into our hearts. So it can be very easy to get lost, or barely scratch the surface of it without a guide. So we need to seek him through both prayer and scripture, not just one, or the other. Both have an important role that relies on the other. We need the scripture as a standard to hold what we receive via prayer to. Otherwise, we may confuse self, emotions, or something much worse for God. Where scripture without prayer makes it much harder to see how it applies to us, never really getting to the root of our brokenness.

The second is motivation. (Proverbs 10:5) If we are not self-motivated to seek God and his wholeness, procrastination can set in, and time can slip away from us more quickly than we realize. I learned the value of this at college when doing independent study. With no fixed time or schedule to work on projects. I had to constantly remind myself why I was doing this, and why it was important to keep on track. Not to mention strategize my efforts to completion of said project. There are many backyard mechanics that often neglect their projects for weeks or even months at a time. That will get you nowhere, and corrosion may continue to get worse while you wait.

The third is patience. (Psalm 40:1-3) We got to be patient with ourselves as well as others. Even in a physical restoration, there are times we got to wait for things to dry before moving on to the next step. Or redo things we didn't get right the first time. A spiritual restoration has holding patterns as well. There are no shortcuts to wholeness. We can either do it right, or we can do it fast, but not both. Shortcuts lead only to surface restorations that hide a lot of inner damage that works their way back to the surface, eventually. Having a judgmental attitude often only encourages others to follow this shortcut salvation of surface holiness.

Finally, connect with the right people. (Proverbs 18:15) While backyard mechanics always think they know everything, they frequently don't know as much as they think. They really need to drop the pride and seek expert advice and outsource when necessary. Those that only teach one dimension of holiness, are no better than the mechanics that paint over rust. So they are definitely not the right people. If you can't find the right people, then read the right books.

Our immortal soul is far more important in the long run than the proverbial dream car that I used as a comparison. But do you treat it that way? What do you really want for your Christian walk, a show-quality life that delights and inspires others to seek holiness as well? Or will you settle for an unfinished project that is but an eye sore for the neighbors? The choice is up to you.

The Visual PARABLEist