Called to be Saints

St. Paul writes, "to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:7 - emphasis mine throughout). In some of his letters, St. Paul writes "to the saints in..." but here and in 1 Corinthians he clarifies it by writing "to those in ______, called to be saints" - notice the clarification "called to be" because the Christians in Rome and Corinth had great problems: they weren't yet fully saints, but they were called to become holy, sanctified, consecrated to God. Just as Christ called His disciples and taught them to care for "the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind," we are called to do the same. We are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ - that is, to become like Him. Why do I say the Christians in Rome and Corinth weren't yet fully saints? Because of what St. Paul goes on to write, in verses 20-23:

"For the invisible things of Him [God] since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. Because, knowing God, they didn't glorify Him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things."

The Christians in Rome and Corinth were new converts from paganism, and had carried over some of their old habits. It is said that we become like what we worship. If, instead of worshipping God as our Creator and realizing that we are created in His image (a powerful goal to live up to!), we think we are wiser than God, then we will become like an image of corrupt man, animals, birds and reptiles. (Doesn't that sound like Darwinian evolution?) And what is the result?

"Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error" (verses 24-27).

Here St. Paul rather graphically identifies lesbianism and homosexuality as specific sins. It's easy for some Christians today to point out those two sins of "unclean lusts" and "vile passions," and quite often they receive "in their bodies the due penalty of their error" - venereal diseases that can lead to infertility and even death. But St. Paul doesn't stop there:

"Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness: sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them" (verses 28-32).

So it isn't just the first two items in the list that St. Paul identifies as sins. The reason why it's easy for Christians to point out lesbians and homosexuals as terrible sinners is because of what psychologists call "guilt projection" - if I can point to something really bad and harmful in other people, it projects onto them the guilt I secretly know to be true about myself... things such as sexual immorality (including looking lustfully at a person of the opposite sex), thinking other wicked thoughts and often carrying them out, pride, boasting, rebellion against parents, doing stupid things ("without understanding"), breaking my word, being unloving and unforgiving even to my own family, not showing mercy to people in need... and the list could go on and on. All these sins basically come from a self-centered lifestyle.

Society has decided through legislative and judicial processes that certain behaviors such as smoking, overeating (gluttony), gossip (slander), pride, sexual union outside marriage (adultery/fornication), accumulating wealth for its own sake (greed) and wanting what the wealthy have (envy), although potentially harmful to the individual and/or others, are not illegal. Now society is deciding that those practicing lesbianism and homosexuality are not illegal and therefore should be allowed to marry.

This obviously redefines the word "marriage," but because traditional Christians are now in a minority, there is little we can do to reverse this process. We can, however, adopt the policy that our churches are available only for the weddings of members in good standing (communicants). We can and should call this ceremony a "Christian wedding" and the new status "Christian marriage" to differentiate it from civil weddings and civil marriage. Pastors and priests should void and return their license to perform civil weddings, and henceforth perform only Christian weddings. Traditional Christian churches in most European countries already do this.

This is not to excuse lesbianism and homosexuality, any more than it excuses all the other sins mentioned above. No, because as St. Paul writes: "Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself" (Rom. 2:1). When I point a finger at someone else, three of my fingers are pointing back at me. So we must all pray, "Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy!" and "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner! - not because God isn't by nature merciful - He is! - but because we all are sinners and really need God's mercy! He has created us in His image, to share in His glory, we are called to be saints - to be holy and pure. But "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). The Greek word for sin is "hamartia" - "missing the mark" - not attaining the goal for which we were created: the glory we were meant to have with God.

"Called to be saints" means that we must live by a higher standard than what the surrounding culture lives by, not conforming to its base and sinful standards. We must dedicate and consecrate ourselves - body, soul and spirit - to God, as St. Paul writes in Rom. 12:1-2 - "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." This transformation is literally "metamorphosis" - the same Greek word for Christ's transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, when the glory of His divine nature shone forth to His three leading disciples.

You may recall the story of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery: the Pharisees, the super-religious people, brought her to Jesus and asked Him what He would do with her:

"Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such. What then do you say about her?" They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her." Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle. Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, "Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more." (John 8:4-11)

Notice that Jesus didn't condemn her, but neither did He say, "Go your way and sin some more!" No, He said, "sin no more." We mustn't judge people in our post-Christian (or even anti-Christian!) surrounding culture for living like pre-Christian Greco-Roman pagans: "I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners; yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world. But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with such a person" (1 Cor. 5:9-11).

We shouldn't judge those who are outside the Church for their sexual sin... or idolatry, greed, extortion, slander or drunkenness; we should, however, hold Christians to a higher moral standard. And this also implies that we as Christians should not yield to secular social and political pressure to support lesbianism and homosexuality in the Church. That's just the way neo-pagans behave: it's their "chosen lifestyle."

Rather than condemning people of this world, we should invite them to the Kingdom of God! In the very next chapter St. Paul writes:

"Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God" (ch. 6:9-11).

Yes, that's what we were - we were just like other people in our post-Christian surrounding culture, so we shouldn't judge them for doing what pagans do, any more than we should judge a pig for wallowing in the mud, because that's what pigs do. If you wash up a pig to show it at the county fair, it'll return to the mud as soon as it can. As St. Peter wrote: "The dog turns to his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire" (2 Pet. 2:22). No, what the pig needs is transformation, so that its pig-nature is changed. That's what we were: our moral nature was like that of a dog or a pig that thinks only of satisfying its physical desires. "But you were sanctified," St. Paul wrote, called to be saints, not conformed to the post-Christian or even anti-Christian worldview of the surrounding culture.

St. Peter also wrote that God "has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1:4). This calls for a lifestyle of self-denial, the ascetic discipline of discipleship. So I call on you to not care just about yourself or your "holy huddle" of church friends, but to learn how to deny yourself and care for "the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind." Check out our 4-week introductory online course, "Ministry to Handicapped and Poor" - do it now! And invite your like-minded friends at church to enroll with you: form a diakonia-ministry team!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 03 Aug. 2014.)