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You would think that one thing every Christian would agree on is the need for personal and corporate holiness. After all, the Bible tells us repeatedly, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy’ (e.g. Leviticus 19:2). As God’s people, we must strive for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
And yet, many Christians seem scarcely interested in holiness and little concerned by Scripture’s warnings for those who do not pursue holiness. It is easy to get Christians passionate about family matters, or cultural issues, or political concerns. But some Christians have actually argued that part of ‘knowing what time it is’ in our cultural moment is recognising that virtues like obedience, truth-telling, and purity of speech are unnecessary obstacles to defeating our political enemies.
More commonly, churches or pastors that lean hard into the Bible’s exhortation to holiness are likely to be called pietistic, legalistic, and unloving. We should not be surprised at these protestations. The world, the flesh, and the devil have always hated holiness. How could they not? God is holy, and the unholy trinity (the world, the flesh, and the devil) hates God. To be holy is to be like God, which means that a necessary step toward God is to flee the world.
