Whole Holiness
God calls His people to holiness. Is this intimidating? Sure. But then, after all, if God is holy, and we love God, perhaps there is a loveliness to holiness that we should consider. Even more so because Jesus embodies God’s holiness perfectly, and we sure love Jesus! Perhaps we’ve been working with an idea of holiness that is incomplete.
Psalm 1-Holiness
What is holiness? Let’s turn to an unusual spot in Scripture—at least, unusual when considering holiness. We often turn to Leviticus or other passages of scrupulous command and fiery condemnation. But we’re going to begin with Psalm 1. Here we see whole holiness.
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD.
On His law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
Notice how Psalm 1 contains a negative-only definition of holiness; that is, we see how there are two ways to live, and that we should “be separate” from the way of the world. Psalm 1 offers a kind of narrative of two fellows and the journey of their lives.
One person wanders into “good times.” But his life is fruitless and unsatisfying. And his end is horror. The other comes away and settles down beside the Word of Life. His life is fruitful and good. His end is a grand home-coming.
That’s holiness, true and full holiness. Holiness that is not merely separate, but is fruitful, beautiful, and good. Not a holiness content with distance from sinners, but a holiness that lives life louder than sinners.
Wholeness
The basic project of Scripture, the effect that the faith Scripture commends should produce in our lives, is sometimes described as obedience or holiness. But it might be better called flourishing or—the word we’ll be using—wholeness.
Holiness is wholeness.
We must nuance our word-choice here. Wholeness has been taken by pop-psychology and emptied of real meaning. But we need to push out further from “Holiness” because it too has become misunderstood and misused in church-culture, as we’ve described already.
Wholeness in the world often means something like, “Being true to one’s self.” Or it might mean achieving a state in which sucking-insecurity is not constant and you begin to notice others. We imagine that this will lead to all sorts of do-gooding and love. But it only results in bumping the bullet of relativized, self-absorbed, self-constructed meaning a wee bit further. It’s wholeness without the holiness; it’s not wholeness at all. There's no coming out of or away of the self from anything (except traditional culture and religion). Rather the self is further entrenched in the self.
The wholeness we’re describing begins as a negative-holiness—coming away—but keeps going. It’s Psalm 1-holiness. It’s a Genesis 1-2, “very good,” holiness. It’s dozens of Gentiles attaching to a young warrior named David; it’s David dancing before the LORD in worship. It’s the holiness of the leper-cleansing Messiah and the bread-braking, hymn-writing, gift-sharing of His first followers.
It’s truly… other, odd, exceptional. It's truly... holy.
To become holy is to be made whole: repaired, gifted, equipped, prepared. Get washed clean and then get dressed and get into the game.
So when I say “wholeness,” please understand this to mean “holiness entire and full, as seen in the life of Jesus.”
Other biblical or culturally helpful ways to say the same thing: "healthy," "happy," and even "human." "Health" is, after all, what Psalm 1 depicts; "happy" is not precisely what Psalm 1 or Matthew 5 means by "blessed," but it's not far off; and "human" is, of course, what God was up to in Genesis 1-2, and what the Spirit of Christ is at work on according to Colossians 3:10. (Plus, describing "wholeness" as "healthy, happy, holy, humans" keeps the whole scheme nearly alliterative [assonitive?]!)
A whole-person is a holy, healthy, happy, human. Doesn't that sound good?! Let’s go get holy; let’s head into wholeness.
Photo by Ivana Cajina on Unsplash
