btoh
THE PROBLEM OF HOLINESS
by Ray Shelton
I. THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
What is holiness? Is is it sinless perfection or something else? These questions raise the problem of holiness. And what does the Scriptures teach about holiness? We shall investigate this problem of holiness in this paper.
OUTLINE
II. THE ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM
1. JOHN WESLEY
5. REVIVALISM
III. THE CLUE TO THE SOLUTION – THE HOLINESS OF GOD
IV. THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM
b. The Flesh and the Sinful Nature
c. The Doctrine of the Sinful Nature
e. The Christian Life and the Sinful Nature
4. THE CHRISTIAN AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
5. THE BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT
Jesus commanded in the Sermon on the Mount,
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt.5:48).
This command of Jesus raises the problem of perfection: what is it to be perfect? Or more generally, what is perfection? In order to obey this command of Jesus, we must determine what is the meaning of word “perfect”, of what he is commanding.
1. XENOPHANES
2. PLATO
3. ARISTOTLE
4. NEOPLATONISM
5. AUGUSTINE
6. THE THREE LADDERS OF AUGUSTINE
7. ANSELM
9. THE THREE LADDERS OF AQUINAS
11. MARTIN LUTHER
12. PIETISM
13. QUAKERS
The love that Jesus is talking about is not human love, but is the divine love that loves the sinner. This is perfect love, and Jesus commands us to love with this perfect love. And this love fulfills the law. As the Apostle Paul says,
“8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet’, and any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. 10 Love does no evil to one’s neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Rom. 13:8-10 ERS).
Paul’s summary statement that “love does no evil to one’s neighbor” may be stated positively, “love does good to one’s neighbor”. Love is a relationship between persons, the person that loves and the person that is loved, and in this relationship the person who loves does good to the person loved. This love is not a feeling but a choice, the choice to do good to the person loved. The commandment to love is addressed to the will and one must choose to obey the commandment. It may be accompanied by feelings of compassion and caring, but Agape-love is the choice of the will to do good to the person that may be unloveable and evil. Thus God loves the sinner, not because the sinner is inherently loveable, but God chooses to do good to him and save him. Because love is a choice, it can be commanded and it can be obeyed. There are other kinds of love, but the kind of love that God commands is Agape-love. This love is not acquisitive love, that wants to acquire its object; neither is it caused by its object because of the value or the goodness of its object. Agape-love creates value where there is no value; it does good to the person loved. Agape-love gives what the person loved needs, what is good for him or her. This love is perfect love.
“7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” (I John 4:7-12 ERS).
“16 And we have come know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected in us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”
(I John 4:16-21 NAS).