Holiness - What exactly does that mean?

[PrisonerOfHope]

I'm interested in hearing what each of you thinks holiness - or living a holy life - means, exactly.

I know there are churches - even entire denominations - who prohibit women from wearing pants, or even short sleeves; they're not permitted to wear jewelry, cut their hair, or even color it their nature color just to cover the grey.

The argument is that women are now allowed to wear pants because the Bible says a person shouldn't wear the clothing of another sex, but let's be realistic: in Biblical times, both men and women wore basically the same thing - robes - and even Jesus didn't wear pants because they hadn't been invented yet!

A lot of them quote 1 Peter 3:3 to forbid a woman's having her hair done, or wearing jewelry:

"Whose adorning let it not be that outward [adorning] of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold..."

Well, if one were to take that literally, what about the rest of the verse:

"or of putting on of apparel."

If you were to be completely literal, then wearing clothing is out, and every woman should go naked!

Sure, women are supposed to be modest...but what does modesty mean, besides "not advertising the goods?" For example, when I moved to the Mainland, I met a woman who attended a holiness church. Because I didn't have cold weather clothing and was strapped for funds, she took me to a thrift shop where I might find some things. So OK, she had on an ankle-length skirt; 3/4 sleeves (no sleeves shorter than that were permitted by her church); had long untrimmed hair, and no jewelry (apart from the watch that was allowed). We were looking at sweaters and tops and she picked out a knit top with 3/4 sleeves, looked at it, and said, "Oh, I like this and don't need to try it on...it's my regular size. (Let me interject, she was...shall we say...very well endowed. ) Well...it was a size medium, and she needed at least an XL. So - it's wrong to show your legs, but it's OK to have a top so tight that, well.....

Someone, I don't think that's it.

What about not watching any secular movies, or reading any secular books? I mean normal, decent ones? I had posted a cute YouTube on a Christian page, and one woman was horrified because it was "entertainment!" Is holiness spending every spare moment in prayer and reading the Bible, and never doing anything for amusement? Or is that just a phony "holier than thou" attitude?

Anyway, I'm eager to hear your interpretations.

[wateredseeds]

True righteousness does not come from our restrictions, but from our freedom. We are free to produce good fruit. But we are also free to sin(that is, we have free will to sin, not that we should or are "allowed to"), which is something we have to be aware of. We are free from the law, but what are we supposed to spend our time with? If we are operating in total holiness, we would be a perfect reflection of christ(2 corinthians 3:18), we would pray without ceasing, we would evangelize, feed the poor, operate in love always, and confess our sins as soon as we are made aware of them. Unfortunately, we live in an entertainment driven world that consumes us. Is it okay to be entertained? Yes. But the part that is sinful(i'm guilty) is that we spend more time with that than with doing the works of God. We are made to do good works(Ephesians 2:10), and we are to store up treasure for ourselves and build up a reward(1 corinthians 3 etc.).

As far as the specific things that we shouldn't do? It's different for everyone. If one person believes that they must dress a certain way in order to resist sin, then that is fine. If another person can resist sin without dressing that way...then that is fine as well. It all goes back to the heart of the purpose. Why exactly are you doing what you are doing? Does it help you to resist temptation? Does it help someone else to resist temptation? Do you believe it will make you holy?

This is the truth. If you wear only certain clothes, and restrict yourself from any entertainment...but aren't evangelizing or producing good fruit...then you are not being holy. You are being deceived. If we consume ourselves with the work of God, holiness(sanctification) will come naturally. If we consume ourself with the things of this world(even in resisting the things of this world), then we will not sanctify ourselves.

Let me put it another way. If you tell a man to go out into the world and do good works, and he goes and does them....he is spending time focusing on the good works, and doesn't have time to sin. But if you tell a man, hey there is a pornsite on the internet....don't look at it, he will be tempted to look at it. He starts spending his time TRYING to resist temptation. His focus is on the temptation, not on the good works. The key to resisting sinfulness, is to produce good fruit. Consume yourself with fruit, and the rest will come naturally.

[sasha2u]

I was in a small Baptist church recently and I left.....I had some trouble with the doctrine (As in Jesus never consumed wine, because alcohol itself is a sin <eyeroll>) and there was a legalistic bent that drove me a bit nuts. Although the pastor and his wife didn't exactly push the "no pants rule" on the congregation...she ehrself didn't even own a pair of jeans, so it was implied. Legalsim is the absolute atithesis of grace, as far as I am concerened. For a woman to dress "modestly" means for a woman to NOT BE strolling around like a 42nd street hooker... it doesn't mean that NOT wearing jeans makes us better in Gods eyes.

As far as "entertainment", I know for me that the more time I spend with God PERSONALLY (and I can fail miserably at that becasue one of Satan's tricks is to keep me running on the never-ending hamster wheel of life) the less and less I even have an interest of the things of this world.....truly. A friend of mine says it best......that we Christians are immersed in a "soup" of filth on this plane...boy, are we ever! I feel I am at my best when my eyes remain on the spiritual....even if it can only be for glimmers of time....than when it is on the "world".

I look forward to the day when all this "soup" will pass away.....and we Christians are together in glory....I think only then will we fully realize how much *this* world will revolt us.....but for now, we just have to "keep on swimming"!

[wateredseeds]

Hi Sasha. Welcome to the forum....unless you've been here i just didn't see you. Anyways, i have a great study I did called "true righteousness apart from the law". I've been trying to do the audio teaching for awhile, and keep running out of time. I'll try to get it done this weekend, and let you guys in on it.

[shann0]

The only thing that makes us righteous is being cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves more righteous than what His finished work on the cross has already done. Amen?

[wateredseeds]

shanno,

Amen!

[sasha2u]

Amen guys and gals! And wateredseeds, yes please share your study on "True righteousness"....it can be a bit of a bear of a topic to try and decipher! ) Looking forward to your thoughts.

[ELKTOOTH]

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Hebrews 10:39
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
Romans 1-

CHRIST JESUS>>HE IS THE RIGHTEOUS ONE..HE IS THE HOLY ONE..WE BELIEVE HIM AT HIS WORD..THAT HE IS WHO HE SAYS THAT HE IS....THAT HE HAS DONE FOR US WHAT HE SAYS HE HAS....WHAT HE HAS GIVEN US...WHAT WE ARE IN TRUTH BY HIS WORK ALONE...we believe in HIM .this is holiness...

[ELKTOOTH]

Yes we will stand before the Father GOD dressed in the righteousness of Christ
Perfect and pure and holy. But because His spirit. His Son Jesus is who dwells within
Us so in Truth it is Christ Jesus Alone Always Who wears the robe of His righteousness
And the Father loves the Son and recognizes Jesus. And He will sit at The Fathers Right Hand.
We are Meerly partakers. He is the Holiness. And He Alone.

[shann0]

Amen Elktooth!