You are a temple of the living God… Therefore… let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (1 Cor, 6:16 & 7:1)
1. Review: holiness is real, it is a visible sign of God’s presence and action in the world. It shines like a light, transforming and driving back the darkness; it radiates like warmth transforming and driving back the cold; it moves likeknowledge, transforming and driving back ignorance. To be less abstract and metaphorical, it is the kindness that transforms and drives back malice and apathy; it is the humility that transforms and drives back pride; it is the hope that transforms and drives back despondency; and it is the mechanism by which creation is renewed.
2. Becoming holy is a process. Our Orthodox Study Bible says that becoming holy requires a lot of effort; “we are enmeshed in a spiritual war zone, entrenched in patterns of sin which become habitual… [even automatic].” As I have said many times, one of the strongest findings in psychology is that we are poor judges of our own actions and intentions. This means that we cannot become holy on our own; the subtle effects of our pride will thwart us, leading most of us, most of the time, to ignore, justify, or praise the things that defile us; while also leading a few of us, some of the time, to do just the opposite – to condemn some things that actually have the mark of grace.
This is why you cannot just be “spiritual” or “holy” in the abstract. Being “spiritual but not religious” may sound enlightened, but it is really just an excuse to justify and praise the person you are now. And unless that person is perfect – unless that person is perfectly holy – then the justification and praise are the worst kind of self-deception. Remember: most people judge their own hearts with rose-colored glasses. We must continually strive to become better, and this means learning to be honest about our shortcomings and [learning to be honest] about the difficulty of the task.
The Orthodox Study Bible compares the process to warfare. In warfare, self-deception is deadly. I know plenty of people who confuse the way they think the world should work with the way it really works; they overestimate the strength of their own hand and completely underestimate the strength of the enemies. This may work in politics and in the media, but when the boots hit the ground – or the hand is actually played – the truth comes out. Our self-deception is so strong that unless we work at it – unless we are willfully “religious” – then we may not find out just how wrong we were until it is too late. We have learned this in Iraq, and we have learned this in Afghanistan.
The awful part of it is that this self deception does not just damage ourselves: just as holiness affects the world around it, in this fallen world SO DOES everything else. There is no such thing as “private sin”, any more there is such a thing as “private virtue”. We can deceive ourselves and we can put on a good show for others, but we can’t deceive nature. When we say that holiness is real, that it is ontological; we are saying that it matters in the same way gravity matters. We can no more protect people from our vice than the sun can shield the planets from its gravity.
3. Becoming holy requires a commitment to a specific way of life. It is not enough of to want to avoid evil and do good: as with that statue of David, you have to chip away all the things that are not good the ask God to fill the rest. And because we are so bad at telling what is good and bad within our own lives – we need help. The Orthodox Life is specifically designed to identify and remove sin from your life so that you can be holy. For example, the Ten Commandments and the Two Great Commandments are not arbitrary rules designed to preserve religion or protect the status quo: they are given to us so that we can really work towards becoming holy. For example:
I. I am the Lord, Your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
II. You shall not worship false idols.
III. No blasphemy.
IV. Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.
V. Honor your father and mother.
VI. You shall not murder.
VII. You shall not commit adultery.
VIII. You shall not steal.
IX. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
X. You shall not covet things that belong to your neighbor.
And to keep you from interpreting and implementing these rules in a way that gets you off the hook, the Church explains what they mean for you (pages 29-35 of your prayer book) and tells you to find a spiritual father or mother to help you put them into effect and hold you accountable.
That is what I mean when I say that holiness is a process and that it is hard. If you are comfortable with how good you are, then it is time to get motivated, because you are not good enough. No one is. Which brings me to the final point, that must never be forgotten:
Conclusion: God is the source of all holiness, and He loves you. You cannot become the man or woman you should be on your own. You cannot even do it with a good family or a good group of friends: you need Christ. He is the ever-flowing source of all holiness, and He has come into the world to bring that holiness to you. He sacrificed everything for you, so that you could enjoy a life of blessings in a cruel world. So do what Saint Paul said: turn yourself into a temple of the living God, then invite that God within that temple to stay. If you can do that: if you can repent of your sins, submit your life to the Holiness and Love that is God, and ask Him to live within you; then rules and the other things just become reminders and celebrations of things you already want. And once you have done that, you have become holy – a visible sign of God’s presence and action in this world.
