Purity vs Holiness

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. - Jesus, in Matthew 23:23-24

Jesus is not gentle with religious leaders who try to look impressive but miss becoming people of character. Sure, we can be fastidious about our giving, but if we do no justice then what does it matter? If there’s no love in our heart for those trapped in poverty, our tidy tithing completely misses the point. Jesus is inviting us to be affected. Jesus is laying out a whole new way of life that’s not about getting things right, but about loving well.

When we get caught up with trying to be pure and squeaky clean in our religion, inevitably we disconnect ourselves from the very people Jesus is calling us to love. As Brenna quoted on Sunday, “Purity most often leads to pride or to despair, not to holiness. Because holiness is about union with, and purity is about separation from” Nadia Bolz-Weber, Shameless: A Sexual Reformation).

Are you open to Jesus’s invitation to true holiness, with it’s deep union with God? Or are you set settling for a simple purity, a checklist of which herbs and spices you are going to tithe on? Ask the Spirit to help you today take a step towards this transformative way of Jesus.