For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read 2 Corinthians 7:1.
What does it mean to live a life of holiness? We sometimes can segment the idea of holiness into a way of living, or as a kind of religious cultural expression. There’s some historical truth in that, but holiness is much bigger than just moral codes or dress styles or hair length. John and Charles Wesley and the early Methodists regarded holiness as something that impacted the whole of one’s existence, as well as our social relations. For the early Methodist movement there was an emphasis on both personal holiness (individuals) and on social holiness (society and the greater community). John Wesley was known for his statement “There is no holiness without social holiness.” For Wesley and the early Methodists, our faith was not simply to be about us and our needs, it was also to be lived out in the way we relate to the world around us. Early Methodists were concerned about individuals, but also about big social issues like slavery, temperance, working conditions during the Industrial Revolution and health (and so much more). We still are called to help bring holiness to the world around us.
A favorite old (from around 1882) hymn called “Take Time to be Holy” has as its first stanza “Take time to be holy, speak often with thy Lord; abide in Him always, and feed on His word. Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.”
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