Holiness anyone? Although some Christian groups are built around the concept of “holiness,” I’ve had trouble understanding it. To me holiness has always seemed like legalistic adherence to outward appearances, and not really a matter of the heart.

However, as I was praying this morning for someone struggling to overcome an addiction, I saw holiness in a different light. I prayed something like: “Lord, let this person see Your beauty with such intensity that he/she can’t bear to turn away from it, even a little bit.”

I have usually thought of holiness as turning away from something that appealed to me and turning to some standard that didn’t appeal to me. However, now I see that holiness is just the opposite. Holiness is to behold such beauty that I can’t bear to abandon it.

After praying that prayer, this Scripture popped into my mind: “O, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” –Psalm 96:9

Lord, let everyone who reads this be so captivated by Your beauty that they long to gaze at Your beauty all the days of their life and forever afterwards.

A meeting about Jesus is informative and tends to become legalistic; however, when a group meets with Jesus, it’s inspiring and life-changing from deep within! In the beginning Christians met as a family; now we meet as an audience. Perhaps holiness calls us back to family, what the Greek New Testament calls ekklesia.

Spiritual paralysis and unholiness occur when members of Christ’s body are taught to be passive spectators rather than active participants. Early Christians met to minister to one another as they were prompted by the Holy Spirit; now we meet to sit and have one man minister to us. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.)

“What the law tried to do by a restraining power from without, the Gospel does by an inspiring power from within.” –Catherine Booth

“If holiness is possible anywhere for anyone at anytime, it is possible anywhere for anyone at all times.” –Bramwell Booth in The Splendor of Holiness