OLD FASHIONED WORDS

                                                    OLD FASHIONED WORDS

When I first heard of J.C. Ryle's book "Holiness", it sounded dry and theological. But it proved to be one of the most practical, meaningful, and motivating books I have ever read.
      As I have mentioned before, the word holiness has all the allure of concrete. It is somewhat of an "old fashioned" word. (But so are gravity, oxygen, etc.,  you get the idea. Relevance and age don't seem to be mutually exclusive.) But if our God says "Be holy as I am holy", we have a responsibility to at least give it a bit of thought. Ryle shows it's importance, and gives us practical and challenging perspectives.
     Words like sin and holiness have very little if any relevance in today's world outside of any discussion of faith. And therefore we hear phrases like "holier then thou", sometimes deserved, sometimes a smoke screen to put off having to think about God. But in response to that thinking, Ryle agrees, and says the following; "Sound doctrine is useless if not accompanied by a  holy life...We want something more than generalities about holy living, which often prick no conscience and cause no offense...True holiness does not consist merely of believing and feeling, but of doing and bearing, and a practical exhibition of active and passive grace."  James 1 is extremely practical in giving us more than, as Ryle calls it, generalities about holy living. Those specifics include humility, dealing with temptation and anger, and a statement that I think sums up what faith and holiness really should mean. James 1:22 "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."  Doesn't get much more practical than that.
      It seems to me that any definition of holiness needs to include what holiness is not. It is not perfection. It is not about comparison. It is not based on what others may think. It may be compared to health. I strive to be healthy, but will never be in perfect health. Comparatively, I am healthier than some, not as healthy as others. Others may think I take good care of my health, and some may not. Ultimately, my health is important primarily to me, just as striving to be holy is, except that my striving for holiness directly reflects on God, for good or for bad. We tend to think that if we are not perfectly holy, we dare not even use the word, though we have absolutely no problem talking about how to stay or become more healthy. The reality is that the pursuit of holiness is a reflection of spiritual health.
     So holiness may be an old-fashioned word, but the need for it is as contemporary as it could possibly be.We could learn a lot by not equating "old fashioned" with "irrelevant".