“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

-Jesus, from The Gospel of Matthew

It is that which leaves The Redeemed feeling uneasy. It brings about discomfort. So much so that they may run from the mention of its name. Or even weaponize it against The Brethren when discernment drives the discussion. It is like a double edged sword, cutting down to the marrow of the soul. Exposing what lies beneath the surface. However, for many in Modern Christianity, they do not want it. Because it may reveal to them something that they do not wish to see. Something that they are not willing to surrender.

I had written some time ago “The Love Of God: The Cancer That Is Killing The Church”. It is about how Modern Christianity and the Modern Christian Church puts so much emphasis on God’s Love, that they totally omit His Justice. What we are left with is a Faith that allows sinfulness to reign supreme. A Faith where there is no call to action for Repentance. A Faith where God loves The Sinner so much, that He is willing to turn the other cheek when he smites Him. If God’s Love is the cancer, then Holiness is the heart disease. The path is not narrow for The Modern Christian. For it is far too wide and full of The World’s comforts and pleasures. So much so that they share their walk with The Unrepentant, The Unregenerate, and The Unredeemed. Three different names for the same man. They too say “I have got my booze. I have got my cigarettes. $&@?! where is my lighter? There it is! And I got my girlfriend for our hot weekend at the beach!”. The only difference between The Modern Christian and The Sinner is that the former also says “Oh yeah! That’s right (I almost forgot). I’ve got Jesus too!”.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

-Paul, to The Church in Rome

Holiness. What is it exactly? It is simply the separation of The Us from The World. It first comes upon us at the moment of Salvation. When we are set apart from The Unrepentant to The Repentant. From the Unredeemed to The Redeemed. From The Unregenerate to The Regenerate. From The Sinner to The Saint. We become justified to God. Our slate is wiped clean as we gain a new name. A new nature where The Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. He opens our eyes, changing our Gray to Black and White as we see The Enemy for the first time and we see him for who he is. This is the first separation. The second, fueled by Sanctification, is our ongoing effort to live more like Christ. It is an effort indeed. It is our desire (or should be) to stand in contrast to The Flesh, both our own and that of The World. To follow in the shadow of Christ, allowing His Word and Holy Spirit to lead us more away from our old selves as we daily die to our former sinful state. It does not come automatically. We must make the choice to walk in The Spirit and put away The Darkness within. That we may be different from The Darkness of The World. That we may be The Light that everyone sees. To show them that there is indeed a Savior. And that there is a hopeful life outside of this.

Unfortunately, in Modern Christianity, Biblical Holiness has become a curse. So much so that Christians either avoid it, or redefine what it means in order to force it to bow to The World. In this way they can have their Jesus and The World on the same platter. Because they do not want to let go. They do not want to die to The Flesh daily. Because to do so would hurt. It would be a great effort unbearable to have to shed the skin and leave it at The Cross. They identify with Lot’s wife, looking over their shoulder to yearn for that which should be left behind.

Modern Christianity is Worldly Christianity. So much so that we can no longer distinguish if they indeed belong to The Christ. They may speak His name. They may attend a forty-five minute concert and a fifteen minute self-help inspirational message at their local Sunday Morning Entertainment Center Funhouse Worship Service. They may mix Elevation Worship in with their Morgan Wallen and Kendrick Lamar on their Spotify playlist. But is that enough to dig the grave for their old selves, or are they only scratching the surface of the earth? What we end up with are Christians that chase The World’s entertainment, culture, and language. Christian’s covered in tattoos, drinking alcohol, smoking and vaping, immodestly dressing, and interrupting their common language with curse words. Not to mention fornication. And they strive to justify it. Dare not you use The Word to call them out on it. No. “Legalist” be thy name. “Holier than thou” they will crown you. As they twist The Scripture that they barely know to their own destruction, they will cry “Judge not!”, condemning you as the one drowning in wickedness for simply taking the commandments of God seriously. For desiring to glorify Him with all four corners of your life. As if we will stand before Christ on our Day of Judgement, only to hear Him say “Depart from Me you that took me too seriously. You should have lightened up and enjoyed The World. I know you not…!”.

“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

-James 4:4

The purpose of Holiness is to be set apart from The World and its deceptive nature. Like the peculiar dress codes and food laws that set ancient Israel apart from the pagan nations, its purpose was to show (by outward example) that these people were different. That they belonged to something, or Someone, different. Imagine if Israel was invited to a dinner party to feast upon unclean foods that were offered to idols, only for them to tell their hosts “We cannot partake in this, for our God says that it is unclean for our lips and it has been offered to that which is opposed to His nature!”? Now, imagine how God would have felt if they had participated in such activities as to not offend their hosts, or to “go with the crowd” so as not to draw suspicion or to seem like a “killjoy”. This is the unfortunate curse that crowns the Modern Christian. They either ignore Holiness, or redefine it, to allow them to partake in the hedonism of The World. All the while professing the name of Jesus Christ. This is why The Modern Christian drinks alcohol, smokes and vapes, gets tattoos, cusses, and fornicates. Not all at once. Or maybe all at once. They want The World and God to coexist on the same all you can eat buffet. To feast like a sultan on Sin and Holiness. Unaware that James says that to do such is adultery against God.

As Christians we are the living ambassadors for Christ. For He no longer walks upon the earth. Therefore, through the working of The Holy Spirit, we are to walk in His stead. To show them what Christ looks like. To show them who He is. When we live like The World, we are showing The Unregenerate that we serve a dead god. That he is incapable of a regeneration within us. We can speak His name all the day long, but then we show them that there is no Salvation from Sin when we are neck deep in cess with a smile on our face. When we live life divided between The World and The Redeemer, we should not be surprised to hear the label “Fake Christian”, or better yet from The Unredeemed: “Hypocrite”.

“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

-Paul, to The Church in Galatia

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

-Paul, to The Church in Rome

Yet many Modern Christians of The World justify their actions and their language under the false slogan “Freedom in Christ Jesus…”. They believe that because of Grace, they are covered no matter what they choose to do. Grace therefore frees them up to live life the way that they see fit without consequences. Ignorance is bliss, yes. But in this case it is a blinding curse. The freedom that Christ gives is freedom from Sin. Not to Sin. His death on The Cross and Resurrection exists as Salvation from our old selves of The World, and a new life as a new creation in Him. The whole of this New Creation is to be “Christ-like”. The living example of Him, showing The World who He is by our difference to it. Not our indifference. Our contrast is to drive the lips of Man to speak “What is it that he has that I do not? He is different…” However, when we live as The World, we tell them that our Salvation is dead because we remain unchanged. That His death hung on the nails of Calvary’s Tree for nothing. We tell them “Christ no more”. That Jesus is a figment of our imagination.

Now do not get me wrong. Holiness is not perfection. For perfection will always be just out of our reach until the day that Forever Sleep sends us to glory. Thank God for the faults that drive us to our knees before The Cross daily. Otherwise we would become comfortable and indifferent. But there is a great contrast between a believer that struggles, and one that lives of The World. For the struggling believer hides in his prayer closet, confessing his faults before God. Pleading for the strength to watch his Sin suffocate. Crying out for Restoration. Praying for his skin to shed to reveal The Christ that resides within. He keeps his war close and between him and God. Only sharing what he can find the strength to confess to those that he trusts can help. Yet, The Modern Christian of The World shrieks at the idea of Holiness. He wears his worldly and sinful nature on his sleeve for all to see. With pride, I might say. He may unapologetically use foul language in the presence of his coworkers. He may choose to throw some cold ones back at the bar with the boys as he joins them in checking her out. Maybe he crushes out his cigarette. Maybe he blows a vape cloud. Maybe he fires up a joint before getting another tattoo. And when it is all said and done, he gets together with his girlfriend for a night of fornication. All the while saying “Yes, I’m a Christian. I’ve been saved!”.

But why does The Modern Christian do this? Why does he so choose a path that is in blatant contradiction with the path laid out before believers by The Word of God? Maybe because he wants to please his sinful flesh. Sin feels so good to his natural self. He does not want to let it go. Therefore he lies to himself that he is saved to justify his actions to his guilty conscience. To make himself feel righteous. Maybe it is because to live of The World is the path of the least resistance. It is a great work to put our sinful nature to rest. To fight the temptation to feed it as it cries out in hunger like a newborn. To tune it out as we await it’s inevitable starvation. Of course the greater the sin, the bigger the beast and the longer that one must wait to close its casket. Or maybe they choose to stay of The World because of fear. They do not want to be known as The Redeemed. They do not want to face persecution and mockery from those within their circle. They do not want to be beaten in the streets while strangers standby with their devices in hopes of going viral. They do not want to be left out and left behind by those that are left out of Salvation and will eventually be left behind when The Christ ascends upon the cloud.

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;  but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’”

-The Apostle Peter

The Word tells us to be Holy. To be the light for The Light. However we fail miserably if we allow our light to be swallowed whole by The Darkness of The World. As we turn Black and White into Gray and muddle the division between Repentant and Unrepentant. Between Regenerate and Unregenerate. Between Redeemed and Unredeemed. Between Saved and Unsaved. We tell The World that Jesus Saves, yet we fail to show them that we are saved and from what we are saved. This shows them that our Faith is a dead faith. That our Hope is hopeless as we drag the Name Above All Names through the mud that He should be carrying us through.

Imagine for a moment if The Modern Christian turned to The Word. Imagine if they took up the mantle of their calling to be set apart from The World. Imagine if they treated Holiness as the blessing that it was intended to be and not the curse that they perceive. Imagine if they took it seriously and stepped up to the platform with The Devout. What would happen then? What would the eyes of The World see? How great the weapon would be that would be formed against The Enemy! But until The Modern Christian wakes up and lets go of the chains that should no longer bind them, we will never know. Until that day The World will still be greater than The Church in influence. And The Christ will be nothing more than a joke. And The Christian will be nothing more than a foolish hypocrite.

To The Modern Christian it seems like a validation to live like The World because the god of this world calls his creation “good”. The sins of The World have slowly become the accepted norm. However, for generations upon generations, Christianity has strived to be the opposition to this god. To be separated from The World and its ways. Only because hedonism has taken over as Man has become his own god with his own truth, has The Modern Christian laid down his weapon of Holiness and surrendered to assimilate into The Darkness. Choosing to become numb. But, for these generations upon generations, Man has had an expectation of what a Christian should be. One that is not as broken as The World. But one that chooses purity over filth. One that is grounded in the foundation of The Christ as the hopeful Savior that The World longs for. 

The World was watching then. The World is watching now. The World will continue to watch. 

What will they see?

“Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

-The Apostle Peter