A description of the course that explains what you will learn and how it will help you grow closer to Jesus
4 lessons
4 lessons
4 lessons
What if holiness isn't about being rigid, miserable, and judgmental? What if God's goal is to make us whole?
Very few people say they want to be holy. The word conjures up images of joyless rule-keepers or spiritual 'superheroes' who can't acknowledge their struggles. But what if holiness isn't about being rigid, miserable, and judgmental? What if God's goal is to make us whole? Jesus invites us into holiness so he can make us comprehensively whole with ourselves, others, creation, and God.
To imitate Jesus's integrated life by receiving God's wholeness as a gift. As God's grace heals us, we grow into people who can be like Jesus in every room—secure in God's love and fully present to our friends.
Do you ever feel like you're managing a portfolio of disconnected people, all of whom happen to be you?
At work, I'm the competent professional. At home, I'm the impatient husband and father. At church, I play the role of the faithful disciple. Social media can pull me in another dozen different directions. Everywhere I go, it's tempting to hide my anxieties, doubts, and insecurities.
In our busy, fragmented lives, we live with an ongoing sense of disintegration. We're scattered, thinned out, and worn out.
For years, I thought the solution was to try harder.
I remember being twenty-four years old, running through a park near Waynoka Avenue in Binghamton, the Memphis neighborhood where I lived. I was in full-time ministry and doing all the right things but somewhere around mile two, a thought hit me so hard it stopped me mid-stride:
You're not trying to honor God. You're collecting bargaining chips so God owes you.
This moment of piercing self-awareness took the wind out of me.
My "holiness" was transactional. How could I admit this to myself or anyone else? How could I continue in ministry with that kind of hollow motivation?
I had tried to manage my inner turmoil by tightening up the rules and dulling my conscience. It didn't work. It just left me feeling weaker, fragmented, and fake.
If we can't manage ourselves with rules and self-effort, what's left?
God commands us to be holy. But if our experience of "holiness" is just heaviness or hypocrisy, we are missing the gift God wants to give.
Whenever we read the Gospels, we feel hope. Jesus isn't a man anxiously managing his image. Instead, he navigates every social situation with wisdom, love, and goodness.
He could equally expose the lies of religious hypocrites and enjoy a meal with the beat-down and brokenhearted.
His heart, mind, soul, and body were perfectly aligned in love for the Father and neighbor. He lived a fully integrated life.
Internally, he was filled with God's affirmation: "This is my beloved one, with whom I am well pleased." Jesus was literally and emotionally "one" with God.
Simultaneously, his heart broke with the pain of the world. He felt grief at Lazarus's tomb, anger in the temple, and joy when his seventy-two friends returned from their missionary journeys.
Even more, his wholeness was contagious.
In the purity system of his day, uncleanness spread by contact. Touch a leper, corpse, or woman, and a male rabbi becomes unclean. So, 'the holy ones' avoided them.
But Jesus reversed the flow. When he touched lepers, they caught his health. When a bleeding woman grabbed his cloak, she was made whole.
In Mark 2, Jesus heals a paralytic's soul and body, honoring him in front of his community. In a few minutes, this man goes from an immobile pariah to a walking legend. For the rest of his life, everywhere he went, his community knew he was blessed by God.
Jesus entered our fragmented world to heal souls, bodies, and communities.
"I am because we are" is the spirit of Ubuntu, a beautiful African concept that has inspired millions around the world. Instead of a radical individualism where we each find our identity in distinction from others, this approach insists that we become whole in community.
But the ubuntu spirit has limits, because it can pressure people to conform to the expectations of their culture, tribe, or group.
In contrast, the Bible says that our communities bring wholeness when we each seek to imitate Christ.
Paul reveals that holiness is a community project. He writes, "You are the Body of Christ, and individual members of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27).
Consider the metaphor. A severed finger isn't "holy", but dying. It can only be whole when it is connected to the hand, receiving blood and nerve signals from the body.
Individualism isolates. Groups can smother us.
But God designed the church to put us back together.
Holiness happens when we stop hiding. When we share our secrets in the Body of Christ, we break the power of shame. When we confess our sins to one another, we experience healing (James 5:16). When we admit we are weak, the strong parts of the Body hold us up.
When both God and God's people bring us in, we experience wholeness and that is the foundation for holiness.
My wholeness has come not from knowing these truths, but from experiencing them. It's the awkward, scary risk of confessing sin, asking for help, and sharing vulnerably, not with anyone, but with faithful friends who are struggling alongside me.
What might you do if you're going to the beach? I usually put on sunscreen and a bathing suit.
So, what is the point of Jesus' resurrection?
Yes, it's an exclamation point that demonstrates the end of sin and death!
But it's also a picture of where we're headed. It's a foretaste of what is to come just as Jesus has been raised, we now live in the hope that we will be raised, too.
This means that God's work to restore us now won't end at death. Instead, God is restoring our current lives because he knows we will be resurrected in the future.
Because Jesus is alive, we can be confident that the one "who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).
Further, as God's people demonstrate the reality of their new lives in Christ, we give hope. Jesus calls his disciples "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" because their good works will lead others "to give glory to your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:13-16).
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Don't stifle the Spirit. Don't despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will do it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us also. Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
In Paul's thinking, personal holiness and community life are completely interwoven. Why do you think we tend to separate them (e.g., "my walk with God" and "going to church")?
Paul prays for the sanctification of our "whole spirit, soul, and body." (He isn't dividing us up into parts, but referencing our physical bodies, our identities, and our connection to God). Where do you feel fragmented?
Instead of peaceful, we often feel agitated. Instead of being faithful, we can feel overwhelmed or default to legalism. Journal what it might feel like to be whole and holy, no secrets or hiding, internally integrated and safely connected to others.
When have you experienced being known and loved? How did that change how you experienced yourself?
How does the promise "He who calls you is faithful; he will do it" change your posture toward becoming holy?
God, it's been hard to imagine what holiness looks like, why I would want it, or how to get there. I'm so defeated and I don't even know where to start. Forgive me for avoiding your standards instead of receiving your love.
Jesus, thank you for showing us what it looks like to be holy and whole. I need you to heal the brokenness inside of me. Don't just forgive me for my sins, cleanse me from them!
Holy Spirit, make me holy. Unite my body and soul. Strengthen my relationship with you and with others. Give me friendships where I can be fully known and completely loved. Empower me to live as Christ would in every situation and circumstance.
God, I know you are faithful. I'm counting on you. Amen.
Check-in: Since our last discussion, how has your Life Plan given you strength?
When you hear the word "holiness," what images come to mind?
Are holiness and wholeness connected to each other? Why or why not?
Paul commands us to "comfort the discouraged" and "help the weak." When have you been the weak one who needed help? What did it feel like to let someone else be strong for you?
Jesus's holiness was "contagious." Have you ever known someone like that? What was it like to be around them?
What would it look like to pursue holiness together as friends rather than as independent, solo projects?
Duration: 2 minutes of silent reflection
What is the ONE thing the Holy Spirit is inviting me to do in response to our conversation today?
Consider your whole life as you reflect:
- Mind: What is one lie about holiness you need to reject? (e.g., "I have to be perfect," "God is keeping score," "I have to figure this out alone.") - Heart: Is there a secret anxiety or shame I need to speak out loud to God to break its power? - Soul: What spiritual practice might help integrate the different parts of your life? (e.g., talking to a trustworthy friend, practicing Sabbath rest) - Body: What is one way you could honor your body as God's holy temple this week? (e.g., getting adequate sleep, going for a walk) - Relationships: Who is one friend you could risk being 10% more honest with this week? What's the specific thing you need to share? - Life Plan: How will your Life Plan enable you to be holy and whole?
Let's go around and complete these two sentences:
"One thing I'm taking away from this is..."
"One way you can support me is by..."
"God of peace, may you sanctify us completely. Amen."
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