2016 Holiness Series #7: Two Kinds of Holiness

This is the last article in our series on holiness, so I would like to finish up by talking about the two different, and equally important, forms that holiness can take: Personal Holiness and Social Holiness.

These two kinds of holiness are based on the Great Commandment, or the Great Commandments, since Jesus said there were two of them: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

Personal holiness, also called by Wesley “works of piety,” is about loving God.  Personal holiness can be divided into two parts.  First, it is about practicing the spiritual disciplines like prayer, worship, and Bible Study.  We could summarize this with the word “piety.”  Second, it is about living in obedience to the moral demands of the Bible which includes, but is certainly not limited to, sexual purity, honesty, and healthy habits.  We could summarize this with the word “purity.”  (In the early days of Methodism Methodist were not allowed to drink alcohol and one had to sign a pledge of total abstinence in order to join a Methodist church.  Later, only clergy had to.  Now, unfortunately in my opinion, we do not seem to care about that anymore.  However, Methodists are still encouraged to practice moderation.)

Social holiness, called “works of mercy” by Wesley, is about loving our neighbor.  Like personal holiness, it is made up of two parts.  First, it is about giving money, resources, time, and effort to help those in need, like in Matthew 25, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison, the list could go on and on.  We could summarize this with the word “compassion.”  Second, it is about using our vote and our voice to advocate in society for what we believe is right.  We could summarize this with the word “justice.”  (We have to be careful with this last one, because it is very easy for the church to get tangled up in worldly politics and for one part of the church to start taking sides against another.)

Often all these parts work together.  Take for example the Temperance Movement which led to the Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920’s.  Methodists were a huge part of that movement.  The reason Methodists participated in that movement (justice) is because they believed that drinking alcohol was morally wrong (purity) and that it often caused poverty, sickness, and crime (compassion).  So, out of concern for purity and compassion, they used their votes and voices, to advocate for the justice issue of Prohibition.

Both types of holiness, and all four areas, are necessary to the Christian life and are necessary in the church if we are to accomplish the mission God has given us.  So, let us be holy people.  Let us practice personal and social holiness.  Let us all be people of piety, purity, compassion, and justice.