Our Model – the Triune God
As we saw yesterday, holiness is more than rules. And in particular, holiness has a relational quality to it. John Wesley himself, who all the Wesleyan churches look to as their spiritual father, was clear that there's no such thing as holiness if it's solitary. But holiness is always social. It's always lived out in community.
Huffman in her article that we're looking at this week said something very interesting to me. She said that the model that we have for holiness is God. Our goal, of course, is to be God-like in our attitudes and in our actions. In fact, Paul, in Ephesians 5, said “be imitators of God”. Of God! So often we say imitate Jesus, but because he is the human form of God. But here Paul says imitate God.
Holy Trinity Relationships
And Huffman says that we as a people are to be one as God is one. That is one way for us to imitate God, it's by our relationships. It's by the interdependent relationships we have in this world.
Somebody once said that the greatest compliment you can pay anybody is to need them. And this is expressed in God, says Huffman. She says that the Trinity is a picture of a holy group. God the Father entrusted Jesus with the earthly mission of restoration. The Holy Spirit was directed to be our keeper after Jesus returned to heaven.
God the Father designated the flow of wisdom and revelation, but uses the Spirit to deliver these gifts. Jesus, when he was on earth, relied on God the Father to raise him back to life.
There is this great interconnection of three but one. No jealousy, no competition, no devouring or biting. In the Trinity, we see relational holiness. We see perfect love between different persons.
I know this gets confusing when we talk about the Trinity. How is God one and yet three? It's a mystery that is wonderful but beyond the scope of the message this morning.
Living in Holy Love
But the point for today is: let us seek to be holy as Christians by living in perfect love with each other. Let us seek that same unity that God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit have.
In our country, there's often a lot of tension between people. Different cultures are always at each other's throats, judging one another for their different ways. But if we are to be holy, if we are to be God like Christ like in our attitudes, friends, we need to love one another.
Do you need to rethink your relationships and ask God to help you love with a holy love? Holiness, again, is more than just following the rules, friends. This is about living in love, not only for God but for the people around us.
