"be holy, because i am holy."
The Bible is full of statements thick with meaning and complexity like the one above. Before we dive into them, and before we ever dive into Scripture, it’s important that we know that we will never fully understand everything that Scripture has to say. This is because it is divine, a vehicle through which the infinite intersects with the finite. But the infinite comes to us, has entered our level of reality, and so we can and are meant to understand some of His message to us. Though we cannot understand all of His message, we can understand enough of it to adequately respond.
We will move through the verse a word/proposition at a time beginning with…
be: not “do”. Today (in our modern, western society) we hardly know the difference, so that we read this verse as if it actually said, “do holy things, because I do holy things.” God, who Peter is (technically) quoting, knows the difference between the word “be” and the word “do” and would have said “do” if he had wanted. Obviously God didn’t mean to use the word “do”, and so it is wrong of us to read the verse like he had.
Not that we replace the word “be” with the word “do” on purpose. Instead it is something we do without even thinking about it. In fact it is something we do without getting the opportunity to think about it. This is because we live in a time and place where the word “be” has ceased to have much value. And this is because we live in a time and a place where be-ing (the verb form of “be”) has ceased to have much value. It is true that this disintegration of the two concepts (“be” and “do”) is being challenged in those parts of our culture that are becoming exposed to Eastern ideas and thoughts, but these also are in need of correction. In these areas the tendency is to err in the opposite direction.
God (through Peter) is after much more than our actions. He is after our heart, our generator, our battery, from which our actions flow, so that holiness starts not with doing holy things, but being holy. This can be a strange concept to get our heads around because it still uses verb/action language, still sounding like “doing” things. Perhaps it is. Maybe the point is that the “doing” needs to be deeper than we think.
The doing side is indeed important. Anyone who has read James knows this. But the point is that being and doing are two sides of the same coin, or the two parts of a fountain; there is the source and that which springs from the source. If you want to change what comes out of the fountain it would be ridiculous to stand at it’s mouth and pour a bunch of dye to change it’s color, or if you wanted to turn it into a coffee fountain it would be absurd to pour instant coffee into the stream as it leaves the source. No, you would go to the supply, the heart of the fountain, and change it. The same is true when we flip the James’ argument; faith without works is dead, but works without faith is equally dead.
So be before you do, if you want your doing to matter at all. And if you’re wondering how to change the source, or if it’s possible, take comfort in the fact that it’s what Jesus is after in every single person he has ever encountered. He clearly has faith that it’s possible and seems to think that he is capable of performing such a surgery. If you still don’t believe just ask Him, I dare you. But don’t ask with empty words or actions. Let your asking start with the orientation of your heart, the core of who you are. That’s what prayer is, after all.
Brilliant.
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