Holy in a Deviated World

-JUSTIN RYAN BOYER-

How do we project our feelings of being unlovable onto the Father, the Son, and/or Holy Spirit?
Can our feelings distort the truth of God’s love for us as His beloved people?

The exchange of common decency between people is on the way out. It’s getting easier to get stuck in our social echo chambers and when an outside voice enters in, with any type of conflicting information or storyline, we can easily go into defense or attack mode. This prohibits us from a proper weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice because everything is always under suspicion. 

As the world deviates further off the path of extending dignity to others, the need for the Church to be different increases. The scripture and ancient writers of the faith marked the Church as /HOLY/, and her holiness is in more need today than ever.

We, as the Church, are frustratingly flawed, and yet we are chosen by God with a unique call and purpose to make visible the Kingdom of God on earth. With issues of sexual morality, celebrity pastors, divisions, abuse of spiritual gifts, the church in Corinth was one of the most dysfunctional groups of people recorded in scripture. And yet, Paul addresses his loving letter to them, calling out their identity and calling them to account: To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people.

There is the moral and ethical goodness that being holy carries with it, but it primarily means to be /OTHER/. The Church as holy means we are a peculiar people: peculiar in that we are exclusively God’s, calling others to be exclusively God’s, and peculiar in that we’re a little unusual as compared to the surrounding movements of the culture. We’re not playing the same game as everyone else is, even while still being involved in the neighborhood. 

As God’s treasured possession, the Church is not for self-centered enlightenment. The supernatural and down to earth community of faith/hope/love is for the glory and enjoyment of God.

“Holiness is central to the mission of the church. If the church is to make a difference, then it must be different.”
-Michael Bird, Theologian-