Social Holiness: The Holiness of God
Faith, Love, Hope in Christ
1 Thessalonians 1:10
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Oct. 22nd, 2023
The story of the Methodist revival in England is remarkable. It all began with a small group of students at Oxford who would gather to read the scriptures, pray, and encourage one another in their walk with the Lord. They were so serious in their devotions that other students derisively called them the Holy Club. Later on they would derisively call them Methodists, because they were so methodical in their personal devotions. One of the leading figures of this group was John Wesley.
John Wesley would later take up a job as a missionary with his brother Charles, the famous hymn writer. The mission was an absolute disaster and nearly ended John’s career in ministry. But when he returned to England he joined with a group of Moravians, a sort of Lutheran pietist, and there famously felt his heart strangely warmed. It was this stuffy Oxford don, and failed missionary who would later join his old friend George Whitfield (perhaps the first celebrity, and an early member of the Holy Club back at Oxford) and preach out in the fields to the workers. Between the powerful preaching of George Whitfield, the beautiful hymns of Charles Wesley, and the preaching and organizational genius of John Wesley, the Methodist revival blew up in England and lasted well beyond John Wesley’s own long life.
When the revival was well underway John Wesley’s United Society gathered in Annual Conference to work through what they were to teach and how they were to teach it. At one point Wesley was asked, “What may we reasonably believe to be God's design in raising up the Preachers called Methodists?”
His answer would become Methodism’s mission statement for decades: “To reform the nation and, in particular, the Church; to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”
The engine and purpose of the Methodist revival was scriptural holiness. But what is scriptural holiness? Or, rather, what is holiness anyway? What does it mean to be holy? To seek holiness? To spread scriptural holiness over the land? There are no self-evident answers to these questions. Perhaps that explains some of the predicament Methodism finds itself in.
Over the next five Sundays we are going to cover Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians with an eye to his teaching on holiness. It is easy to pass over what Paul has to say about holiness because it pervades every letter of his. Holiness is the air Paul breathes. It ought to be the air we breathe as well.
Our reading this morning is from Paul’s thanksgiving at the beginning of the letter. He writes, “We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we have our first description of holiness.
Holiness is faith, love, and hope in Jesus Christ. Holiness is faith, our allegiance to and belief in the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Holiness is love, our seeking the good for others as we would want it for ourselves. Our constant care and concern for others. Our service to the world. And holiness is hope, our dependence on God, our trust in his promises, our conviction that in the end he will make all things right. And all these things are given to us in Christ. When we share in faith, love, and hope, we grow in holiness and are made more like Jesus.
But this dangerously makes holiness out to be a mere moral quality. Maybe you’ve heard the term “holier than thou.” That’s a degradation of holiness. Anyone who uses their moral qualities as a way to one up someone else is not truly holy. That’s another way sin enters our lives.
Holiness is more than a mere moral quality, then. It is also the presence of God in our lives. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us in power. Paul also writes, “For we know, brothers and sisters, beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” The Church of Thessaloniki was not made a holy Church because of their moral perfection. Because they pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. Because they made themselves better than other people. The Church of Thessaloniki was made a holy Church because the Holy Spirit dwelt among them in the word preached. They were made a holy Church because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in joy. A presence that was made palpable in their preaching and prayers and song. A presence that made itself known in power.
We must combine these two things then. What is holiness? It is God’s presence in our midst through the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit is present we are made more like God. And God builds us up in faith, love, and hope in Christ.
There is no holiness without the Holy Spirit who dwells in our midst. And the Holy Spirit imparts gifts, foremost the gifts of faith, love, and hope. This, ultimately, is scriptural holiness. This is the engine of revival, and the purpose of the Church. We are the community where God’s Holy Spirit might dwell. And we are the people who are called by God to be imitators of God in Christ. This is our high calling and purpose. But it is also the work of God in us. Because the whole Christian life, and our walk in holiness is, ultimately, sheer gift.