Relational Holiness

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If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15, ESV).

We follow what we love. It’s easy to say “yes” to the things that we enjoy and “no” to what we don’t like. The New Testament teaches relational holiness or becoming so in love with Jesus that it’s easy to keep His commands.

Many consider Christianity a religion of dos and don’ts, sort of drudgery with all the fun eliminated. When someone has the “misfortune” of proclaiming Jesus as Lord, those from their prior life think, “Oh, well, they used to have such a good time at parties.” The “good times” of hangovers, DUIs, unwanted pregnancies, STDs, and divorce quickly reveal the frivolous nature of what many consider fun. 

I laugh at sitcoms depicting the aftershocks of nights of licentiousness (“headaches,” “I slept with you, now remind me of your name,” “uh, oh, I’m in jail,” “don’t tell my husband,” and “I hope nobody finds out”) — as the acceptable results of a good time!

Why don’t the characters of Mash™, Cheers™, Friends™, and Ghosts™ just jump off a 100-foot cliff while screaming on the way down, “This is so much fun, a once-in-a-lifetime experience!” or perhaps, “Try it, you’ll like it!”

Sin’s deceptiveness masks momentary pleasures that bring consequences for a lifetime.

We should think that the fruit of holiness, of walking in the Spirit, which the Apostle Paul defines as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control would easily compete with the alternatives of sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealously, fits of anger, rivalries, dissentions, division, envy, drunkenness, and orgies of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit, dismissed as “not having fun,” is easily replaced by the 100-foot cliff drop being the fruit of the flesh.* 

Now back to relational holiness.

We can only become holy by focusing on Jesus rather than alternatives, by reading, praying, worshipping, participating in fellowship, and developing a real, powerful, and fulfilling relationship with Jesus. And becoming more in love with Jesus than anything or anyone else.

The Apostle John correctly writes…

By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked (1 John 2:3-6).

Amen, to loving God more than anything else!

*This paragraph is an OG or Old Guy (that’s me) rendition of Paul’s teaching on the fruit of the flesh vs. the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:16-24.