Introduction: The Politics of Holiness
Derek Poole

Comment
David McMillan

From the Director
David Porter

Boundary Markers
Heather Morris

A Passion for Holiness or Dangerous Purity
Bishop Harold Miller

In the Flowing Tide
Steve Stockman

Holy Sectarianism
Alwyn Thomson

Book Reviews
Alwyn Thomson

< Past Issues Archive

BOUNDARY MARKERS
The Advocacy of Separatism is Not Consistent with Pauline Teaching or Practice

What does it mean to be holy? Ask that question on the streets of Northern Ireland and you are likely to get a wide variety of answers. I'd be willing to hazard a guess that some would have negative overtones. Holiness is associated in many minds with judgementalism, separatism and perhaps even hypocrisy. Is that what holiness is about?

Paul provides us with a number of facets of the nature of holiness. There is undoubtedly a link in Pauline thinking between holiness and separation. Holiness, while ultimately a Divine characteristic, is also both a characteristic and a calling of the people of God. It does not seem to me that Paul makes a plea for separatism. However, he is unequivocal in 2 Corinthians 7:1, for example, in calling Christians to separate themselves from any sin which could retard the perfecting of their holiness. Advocacy of separatism, however, is not consistent with Pauline teaching or practice. Separatism leads to a holiness which is not living and inter-active but dead, a holiness which is essentially flawed because it is isolated and purposeless.

Further light on the question of what it means to be holy is also gained from Paul's emphasis on love. Running as a consistent theme throughout the Pauline epistles is the command to love, even in the face of disagreement. Sadly, it must be admitted that in this province obedience to that command carries with it the risk of being branded weak or open to compromise. However, love and holiness are integrally bound together. Without love, holiness becomes open to pride and self-satisfaction. But with love, holiness develops the potential to reflect the nature of God Himself.

Paul links holiness with belonging, and it is on this point, as Paul explains it in Galatians that the remainder of this discussion will focus. One strand of meaning underlying the use of the Greek 'hagios' in the New Testament is sense of belonging to God. The saints, the 'hagioi' are those who belong to Christ.

Who belongs to God?

There is contemporary controversy concerning the place of "works of the law" to which Paul refers in Galatians 2:16 (RSV), for example. One possibility is that Paul is referring to "works of the law" as boundary markers, rules which determine group membership. Thus for some Jewish Christians, boundary markers like adherence to food laws and circumcision, determine who is inside and outside their group. In Galatians 2 and 3, Paul is arguing forcefully that in Christ boundary markers are swept away, that holiness in the sense of belonging to God is determined not by observation of boundary markers but by faith in Jesus Christ.

This was a crucial issue theologically and pastorally. Would the liberty in which Christ had made the believers free be maintained, or would the church be condemned to bondage and sterility? Paul is convmced that bondage and sterility would be the results of adherence to unnecessary and non-essential boundary markers.

It was also a crucial issue personally for Paul. In Galatians 2:11-21 we see that he was willing to oppose Peter publicly on this issue. Acts 10 and 11 make it clear that Peter welcomed Gentile converts into the church. Indeed when he first arrived in Antioch he shared table fellowship with Gentiles (Galatians 2:12). However, when Jewish Christians arrived from Jerusalem Peter withdrew from table fellowship, not out of theological conviction, but as a result of pressure from the visitors. Paul opposed

Peter because he believed that his actions had compromised the truth of the gospel in that he had placed a priority on outward observance over faith. This was no peripheral issue. Making idols of boundary markers compromised the truth of the gospel. That assertion must prompt evangelicals to do some serious thinking. What are our essentials, and what are simply boundary markers? Have we explicitly or implicitly seen boundary markers as essential?

Despite intellectual acceptance that relationship with God through Jesus is central, rather than adherence to rules of group membership, people who do not conform can set off prejudice in us. We can judge people's holiness and decide whether or not they are 'sound' according to boundary markers. It is more comfortable, and nonthreatening, to be with people who observe our boundary markers. But it seems to me that if, like Paul, we want to have the courage to set boundary markers aside, then as well as appropriating this truth intellectually, there is a need for the Spirit to work with us on our attitudes, prejudices, and inherent judgementalism.

For Paul there was cost inherent in being a boundary breaker. There was cost in terms of popularity, to the extent that his authority was questioned. One of the factors leading to the disputes in the Corinthian church concerned Paul's attitudes to the food laws. The Judaizers felt that his teaching was incredibly weak on this. There was cost too in terms of risk to relationships in that Paul believed that he had to confront Deter on this matter. We should not be surprised if this is a costly road for us too.

The Implications of Belonging

Throughout Galatians Paul uses language of slavery or bondage to apply to those who live in accordance with the law. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery". (Galatians 5:1)

Paul maintains that to understand the concept of "belonging" as dependent on works of the law leads to sterility. On the other hand those who live by faith in Christ, and who are justified by that faith, are free.

In Chapter 5 verse 9 of Galatians Paul comments that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. In that context he is speaking negatively, referring to his contention that a small number of people have led the Galatian Christians astray by their emphasis on the necessity of circumcision. But of course Paul's reference picks up Jesus' positive teaching on Christians as leaven and salt. Security in the knowledge and experience that holiness is about belonging to God does at least two benefits in this regard. It frees people to be salt and leaven in the world, and it clarifies what the gospel is all about in society's collective mind. How often unchurched people respond to questions about church, not with an affirmation of relationships, but more often with an emphasis on what they see as boundary markers. If holiness is about observation of boundary markers, then inevitably the Christian will be afraid of contamination and foster suspicion of others that leads to isolation and separation, if not separatism. Holiness is no longer focused on God, but on the belief that I am 'holier than thou'. On the contrary, those who are secure in their belonging to God are free to focus on what is important as they let the Spirit of God develop their personal holiness; they are free to see past the boundary markers, free to be the fragrance of Jesus in society. "For in Christ Jesus" says Paul, "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Gal.5: 6)

So here Paul presents us with a context for holiness. Holiness is always personal, because at the heart of God's compassion is the unique worth of the individual. But it is also profoundly social for a relationship based on belonging to God, rather than works of the law, liberates the Christian to make the gospel incarnate. How can we relate to people and perceive the realities which manipulate their lives if our primary concern is boundary markers? How can we hope to be listened to by society, to be seen as relevant if our primary concern is the building of barriers? How can we gain the opportunity to humbly offer our Christian perspectives, if society sees the church as petty? Those who live by faith understand that the essence of holiness is belonging to God. This is both freeing and empowering. It transforms separatist ideas about holiness and liberates the Church to be compassionately engaged in the world.

Heather Morris is a Methodist Minister currently without Pastoral charge. She has a PhD in Pastoral Theology and is a member of the ECONI Steering Group. She lives in Newtownabbey with her husband and their two boys.