Following Jesus in Holistic Community
What Is Holistic?
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
July 13, 2008
What is does holistic mean? Following Jesus in Holistic Community. What does it mean for community to be holistic? What does this mean for you and I? Is this some type of New Age impetus? No, not really. Holism is a very powerful biblical idea. And one of the main passages that this is derived from is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.
Before I begin I want to say this. I firmly believe that this series of sermons could be one of the most important series that we have looked at. As I mentioned in the last Town Meeting, the series on the 7 deadly sins set the stage for this series. This series will deal with some essential issues to the life of our congregation. I really believe that this could be a huge turning point in the lives of many individuals as well as the life of our collective body. I can’t emphasize this enough. If you must miss for vacation or work, please stay caught up online.
Here is how I’m thinking through these important issues. This week we are going to look at what holistic means. Next week we are going to look at a biblical example of someone who followed Jesus in holistic community: Stephen. Well take a break for Kid’s Day and then look at the importance of community in this stream of thought.
This three part set of sermons then lays the foundation for looking at the seven areas of holistic community that Jesus needs to sanctify, so to speak, which is taken from today’s passage. Each of these seven areas correspond to one of the seven deadly sins. The way I see it, these seven areas act as a spiritual counterweight that begins to cancel out the damage that the deadly sins can wreck in the life of the body of Christ.
Ok let’s read these verses. This morning I will be reading from the New American Standard Bible. This version gives us a very good literal translation. Sometimes the grammar is awkward in this translation but to get an extremely close translation, I often refer to this version.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
There two extremely important parts of this blessing. The first phrase says, “sanctify you entirely.” The second is “may your spirit and soul and body be preserve complete.”
Two Phrases
a. Entirely sanctified
This idea was hugely important for the early Church of God reformers. They believed that this was one of the primary beliefs that made them as Church of God people distinctive. They believed and called people to be entirely sanctified meaning that God would sanctify his people completely—totally. This meant that the redeemed people of God would give God complete control of their lives—all of it! Every area!!
Basically, they believed that a person could live in such a way that they were set apart for the use of God or sanctified completely. This meant that it just might be possible to continue to make choices that were honoring to God and would be in line with God’s will.
Now here is where it gets a little sticky. Anything that is not God’s will is defined basically as sin. However, in the bible there are three words that are often translated as sin and they have different connotations. These early reformers honed in on one of these words and narrowly defined it as a “willful transgression.” This meant that sin was only when you did something opposed to God’s will and ways on purpose. Not only that but they then created a code of conduct that then was culturally specific to determine what this sanctified saint could but usually could not do. Unfortunately in the process, this narrow definition of entirely or completely left out huge areas and therefore ended up ironically being incomplete.
Bear with me as I get a little technical. The Greek word for entirely is holoteles. Basically it is holos and telos put together. Holos means entirely or completely or literally wholly as in wholeness. Telos means goal. So the word translated as entirely might literally be translated as the complete or whole goal. So Paul might explain it this way: “May God himself with no other help make your holy or sanctify you completely as His goal for you.”
The second phrase is:
b. Preserved complete
Another translation is the whole of you that is your whole being of your spirit, your soul, and your body be kept blameless or pure or without fault. Bear with me for a moment. The Greek word here is holokleros which is holos (ok do you remember what holos means? whole. Right?) plus kleros which is parts. So together you have the whole parts. One translation actually gives further meaning to this “whole parts” by saying it is sound. If we say that a something like structure is sound, this means that the whole thing including each of the individual parts is in good shape. Thus Paul includes three designations—spirit, soul, and body—that were a symbolic way for Hebrews to indicate the whole of one’s being.
So it is out of these two phrases including the entirely sanctified portion and the holos (meaning whole right?) that we derive the word hol-istic.
Holistic is defined as wholeness or completeness.
So when we talk about following Jesus in a holistic community, the holistic is meant to say that we follow the ways of Jesus that affect every area of our lives. It means that every area of my life and not just me but our lives are given totally and completely to God.
So what does this imply as we follow Jesus? Am I expected to be perfect? Does God expect me to be perfect? Absolutely not!! When we expect this, do you know what happens? It is not holistic at all. If anything it is at best partial because people who live with those expectations hide their imperfections, their character defects, their struggles, and sometimes their shame. They pretend that they don’t exist. At the very least we often hide those skeletons in a deep dark place hoping they never come into light. And this is far from being healthy and certainly not being holistic.
A few years ago a guy in the main leadership of the Boy Scouts of America made the headlines. He was known for his strong stance against pornography and homosexuality. He kind of made it a crusade to protect the Boy Scouts from these influences. Well, he made the headlines because it was discovered that he was heavily into watching Internet pornography and was probably addicted himself. This was happening while he so vehemently opposed pornography.
This is the problem that perfection sometimes brings. We hide our mistakes, our flaws, our character defects, our temptations, and even our sins and then we often in feeling guilty become strongly opposed to the same sins in others in order to keep the light from truly shining on us. This isn’t healthy and it isn’t holistic.
It isn’t holistic because we need to surrender our entire life to God’s control including our flaws, our defects, our temptations, and even our sins. This is our complete or entire life that needs to be set apart (sanctified) for God’s use. This is what holistic or wholeness in a community that follows Jesus and his ways is all about.
So the implication then is this.
Implication: Not perfection but repentant.
God has shown us a better way to live but it is a hard and narrow way. And to top it off, if we are truly following Jesus and listening to God and seeking God’s face and searching out where God is working, then God will continually reveal things that we have yet to give Him control. At the very least, as He challenges us to step out in faith, there will be times when I have to step out in faith again and trust him to come through. After twenty years, you would think that this should come quite naturally. But no, God has this knack of choosing just the right area and just the right thing to stretch my faith yet again. Otherwise, I would be perfect.
God’s intention is for me to be entirely sanctified. It is possible or else why would Paul ask for this to happen. But what Paul was praying was for God to continue to work and reveal and give us more grace. We continue to work on these defects and flaws and anger issue and our lack of forgiveness and our stupidity and our slow growing faith and on and on.
But not just that, Paul is asking God to set us apart completely in every area so that we hold nothing back. Everything we have and everything we are can then be used for the divine mission that God has called us to be a part of. “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
So with this in mind what does it mean to be holistic? Tell me what it might look like for you to be a part of and live in a holistic community. Tell me what it means for God to have every area.
For me, this is what Jesus is saying to me. This is the picture that holistic means.
Holistic means…
• Vulnerability
It means I can admit it when I make mistakes and yes, maybe even sin. It means we can share our flaws and defects without the fear of being crucified.
• Transparency
It means that sometimes I might hurt you with a careless word even when I don’t intend to. It means that I can share my hurt in the midst of this community and I don’t have to hide. I don’t have to hide who I am. I don’t have to be ashamed.
• Being real
Holistic community means that I don’t have to pretend. I don’t have pose. I don’t have to get you to like someone that I pretend to be. It means that I can let you see my struggles and that you know that sometimes I definitely don’t have it all together.
• Honest
Hey, if you going to be repentant and admit it when you’re wrong, then you’ve got to be honest. It’s okay to admit that you don’t have all the answers. Holistic means that I don’t have know it all but I follow the one who does.
• Flexible
Another quality might be teachable. If you’re flexible then you are not rigid. Convictions are wonderful things but when you close your mind and refuse to listen to what God may be saying to through others even others that may be vastly different then you’re rigid. God talks about his people being like a lump of clay that is flexible and moldable by His hands.
The early Church of God saw that the revelation of truth was progressive. They said, “There is more light to be had on a subject.” When you know it all and have it figured out, then I believe that you could be making yourself God in God’s place. Therefore you are not entirely sanctified. Rigidity is not holistic.
• Grace-Full
Full of God’s grace. We forgive much because much is forgiven. Do not judge. Get the log out of your own eye and then you will be able to truly help your brother experience the grace of God more completely.
• Peace-Full
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. Strife, division, gossip, slander, arrogance, animosity, and the like have no place in the body. Does this mean we will never disagree? Certainly not. I don’t agree completely with anybody not even my wife. Contrary to what she may think, she is not always right. And she says the same thing about me.
Understanding, consideration, compassion, and listening to the others leads to peace. Seeking common ground. I believe that being completely (wholly or holistically) set apart for God’s use (that is sanctify) means that I trust God to show other people (and this is hugely important) and myself when we don’t quite get it. It is not up to me to get everybody to believe exactly the same things in the same way that I do. That is the height of arrogance. And that seems to me to be what many Christians call evangelism.
Full of peace because God is a God of peace. He calls us. He is faithful even when we are not. And God is the one who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Here is my call. Can you embrace a holistic view of spirituality? I don’t mean that you have to sell out completely and believe exactly the same way that I have set forth. That wouldn’t be holistic. I mean can you embrace an exploration of a holistic faith? Can we journey together as share what this means and what impact it might have? Can we journey with Jesus as we learn what it means for us to follow Jesus? Can we share a bit of ourselves including our struggles as well as our dreams? Can we make room for God in every area of our lives?
The early Church of God reformers believed that at a second point in time after we begin believing in Jesus, God Himself sends His Spirit to guide and direct in order to surrender our entire lives into His care. They found many people believed in Jesus but then experienced God in such a profound and powerful way when they were able to allow Jesus to have every part of their lives. This is what I believe God is calling towards. This is what holistic if it is to have any real meaning and power has to become for us.
I surrender everything that I have and everything I am to you Jesus. I will follow you and your ways and your teachings and do whatever you want. Not my will but your will. Not my ways but your ways. I’m tired of struggling on my own. I’m weary of this life that I have made. Yes, I’ve made it. I’ve done it. I can’t do it anymore. Here it is, Jesus. Here I am. Do for me because I can’t do it anymore.
Paul said, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” Do believe it? Do you want it?
