Pursuing Holiness
Revival - Part 2
Sunday, April 18, 2021
1 Peter 1:13-16, Ephesians 4:17-5:2
So roll up your sleeves, get your head in the game, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”
1 Peter 1:13-16 (The Message)
Nobody’s perfect.
While this may be a comforting sentiment when we make mistakes, it can also easily become an excuse to live our lives however we choose because we know that God loves us for who we are. “You do you” has become almost a motto of our society. It is a well intentioned expression of tolerance, acceptance, and individual expression, all of which are valuable. We should be comfortable being ourselves without fear of judgement and criticism. We all have unique personalities and gifts that we should freely express and share. But being comfortable with who we are doesn’t mean settling for less than who God intended us to be. God loves us as we are, but the same God loves us far to much to leave us the way we are.
There are parts of our lives that are deeply broken. Sometimes that brokenness comes from pain inflicted on us by others or by our external circumstances. Other times our brokenness is the result of our own sin or poor choices. Either way, God desires for us to be made whole. God didn’t send his son to die just so that we could put a beautiful royal robe on to cover up the mud and gunk underneath. Jesus came so that we might be fully restored into the image of God in which we were created. As Paul writes, in Christ we are to become new creations… the old is gone, the new has come (1 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus wasn’t broken on the cross so that we could stay broken. He was broken that through his brokenness, we might be made whole.
Wesley fully understood the Biblical call to a holy life. “Be Holy as God is Holy”, Peter writes as he quotes Leviticus 11:44. But Wesley understood something else about this holiness to which we are called. It’s not something we can do on our own. I don’t just mean that we need God’s help to live holy lives, although that is certainly true. I also mean that God intended us to grow in holiness in relationship with one another. As Wesley put it, “there is no holiness but social holiness”. This isn’t just about social justice and community service, although that is a crucial part of the Christian life. Wesley was specifically referring to life in community. His organizational model of societies, classes and bands shows us that holiness is something we are to pursue together, not alone in private. How, for example, can we grow in love, which is a key part of being holy, if we are not doing life with others who are sometimes difficult to love. The genius of the Wesleyan revival is the methodical way he structured small groups for the purpose of pursing holiness together. Truly this is a structure that many churches today have lost, and we have paid the price as a denomination and as a society.
Let us learn from the example of these early Methodists and re-prioritize our bond with one another in holy friendships which spur one another on toward righteousness. As we recapture our pursuit of holiness together in community, we can be sure of this promise, that the one who started a good work in us will stay with us to complete the job by the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
For more on the Wesleyan Revival, check out Adam Hamilton’s book, “Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It”