My brother always has some sentence in our conversations that gets me thinking (or maybe its the whole conversation)!
The other day the line was – “Love came first, then holiness.”
The statement was in relation to what we perceive of God. How we look at God’s attributes. Where we place our own emphasis in relation to modelling God.
My religion states that I should be holy as God is holy (this is a God Statement). Completely other than anything around me. Only striving to be what God is.
Not that I am then God. God is God and I am not.
The question then points to a state of being that is reflective. We see images and settings in which holiness is displayed. We are asked to reflect on those instances and to expect that a principled life will derive from them. In some instances, the word of God becomes the rule of God in very plain language. In other instances, the actions of God become the ground from which we derive our rules.
BUT . . . the big interrupter word in life.
If holiness is reflective, what is it reflecting?
Which brings me to the statement Jesus made – “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”. This is a statement of communion and communication. Prior to statements of holiness and laws of direction and decision comes LOVE.
Oops, I forgot to talk about the Trinity, and the joy of contact, and fulfilment in passion for others, and that great Latin phrase “et. al.” (“and all the rest” that goes along with the word LOVE).
I guess that’s for another day.