Following Christ Beyond Denominations

Almost a year ago I had occasion to meet and speak with a denominational Christian minister. As soon as he realized I was a minister he asked me, "So what does it take to get to heaven?" I liked that because he was forthcoming and I didn't feel that he was looking for a strife. I love for someone to just be direct with me, as long as it doesn't have a spirit of contention with it. I know how to shut that down as well, but it just gets a little wearisome after a while. Anyway I quoted to him the essence of Hebrews 12:14: "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Naturally he wanted to know what I meant by holiness, so I let him know what the scriptures mean about holiness, and about what GOD means about holiness. And simply stated, it is scripture confirming scripture again: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." There is the "getting to heaven" part. As for the holiness part, the next verse after that one tells the story: "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (I Jn. 3:2,3). And I think that makes really good spiritual sense, seeing that Jesus also confirmed that saying: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mat. 5:8). So what does that tell you about anyone who has not had and kept their heart purified from sin? That is correct, they do NOT "get into heaven," as it were. Anyway we had a somewhat interesting conversation from there for a short time. But a couple of months later a man who is part of a Pentecostal sect that I know of, and who also had heard things about me, approached me with a similar mindset. Problem is, he was looking to prove the "truth" of his sect's creed to me, and had a pre-prepared agenda to do so. So he starts out the same way I started out with the other minister. He just comes up and says to me, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Well, I'm thinking, "amen," but I was still waiting for the punch line, and it was on its way too. He almost immediately started defining the "holiness" that he was talking about: "You know, women can't cut their hair, and they can't wear pants, and men......well." He didn't finish the "men can't" part because he was going to say that "men can't have long hair;" and my son, who is filled with the holy Ghost, was standing next to me, and he HAS long hair. Well I'm sorry, but if you are speaking for God you don't respect the persons of men and shy away from telling it like it is. He was afraid to say what he wanted to say because he was AFRAID period! The Bible I read says that "perfect love casts out fear," and that "he that feareth is not made perfect in love" (I Jn. 4:18). And that goes to what I told him about holiness after he had his spiel: ONCE AGAIN: "And any man that hath this hope [of salvation] in him, purifieth himself even as he [Christ] is pure." I explained to him that that is the correct definition of holiness. The "holiness" that he tried to tell me of is nothing more than "the commandments and doctrines of men," that "make the word of God of none effect" (Mk. 7:7,13). The "holiness" that this man was perpetrating is nothing more than a "form of godliness" (II Tim. 3:5).

Allow me to set the record straight on this hair issue, which is a tradition upheld by many Pentecostal affiliations. Jesus harshly rebuked the Pharisees for this way of thinking: "Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Mat. 23:26). So what kind of traditions did they have that relate to this issue? "But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments" (Mat. 23:5). Both of those rebukes in fact took place at the same time, in Jesus' renowned scolding of the Pharisees in Matthew 23. These people had actually exaggerated and embellished ceremonial things that were in the law, like having the commandments of God woven into the borders of their garments, so that they could APPEAR more holy than others. And so the apostle Paul's mention of long hair being a "glory" for women, and long hair for men being a "shame," has been totally exaggerated and embellished for the same exact purpose. You don't think so? The man who approached me let that cat FLY out of the bag! First off, long hair means that it's on the back, not down to the waist. And short hair for men can be as far as down to the shoulders, but not down the back. And beside all of that, the apostle clearly stated about this topic, "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the [congregations] of God" (I Cor. 11:16). So what happened to that part of the equation? There is no such custom from God in the Bible that a woman cannot cut her hair, or that a man has to have an ivy league cut. THAT IS A COMMANDMENT OF MEN! And if it isn't, then why is it that most of the women in these sects wear their hair up in a bun almost all of the time? How can your long hair be a glory if it is always piled up on top of your head? It is nothing more than the Pharisees broadening the borders of their garments where the commandments of God could more easily be seen written. And Jesus made it perfectly clear that, "There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him" (Mk. 7:15). And by the same token, there is nothing on the outside of a man that can enter into him and make him pure or holy. So again, if we have that kind of meaning of holiness then we are absolutely taking away from the TRUE meaning of holiness at the same time, which is purifying the heart by the power of God's Spirit after we've received it (Acts 15:8; I Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:6; I Pet. 1:22; I Jn. 3:2,3). If your heart is pure and in tune with God's Spirit, you will have the spiritual sense to not look perverse on the outside; and neither will you feel inclined to have to do anything special to the outside to make it LOOK holy. So I will conclude with this one evident statement of truth: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Holiness my friends, is purely of the heart, even as the scripture says. Amen.