Holiness and Mission. Morna D. Hooker
is that the Greek preposition that Paul uses – the word en – normally means ‘in’. Was that perhaps what Paul meant? If not, why did he use en, rather than the normal Greek construction?
Let us suppose that what Paul intended to say was, indeed, that God was pleased to reveal his Son in him, in order that he might proclaim him among the Gentiles. If we are right in doing so, then Paul understood himself to have been commissioned, not simply to preach the gospel, but to live it. From that moment the Son of God had, as it were, taken over his life.41 Indeed, it would seem that Paul believed that it was necessary for him to live the gospel in order to preach it: God revealed his Son in him, in order that he might proclaim him. Christ was to be revealed in him – through his words and actions, his behaviour and his choice of missionary strategy. He can even speak of the fact that ‘the marks of Christ’ are ‘branded’ on his body (Galatians 6.17). No wonder, then, that he stresses again and again that what he has done is to try to live in conformity to the gospel.
Paul’s so-called ‘conversion’ was certainly a dramatic turning-point in his life. From now on he was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God, and that God had raised him from the dead. But his ‘conversion’ can be seen, I suggest, not as a move to a new religion, but rather as a change from one understanding of ‘holiness’ to another.42 As a Jew, Paul had been a Pharisee – a term which means ‘separated’. Pharisees took the call to be holy seriously, and for Paul, holiness had meant personal piety: living strictly according to the law, avoiding contamination, preserving a relationship with God. This was the ‘straight line’ model of holiness, linking the holy people with their holy God. But with his call to take the gospel to Gentiles, this understanding of holiness had been destroyed. ‘Be holy as I am holy’ now meant ‘be what I have revealed myself to be in the person of Jesus Christ, who loved you and gave himself up for you’. Now Paul realized that God’s holy people were called, not to keep God to themselves, but to take him out into the world, to offer the gospel to the nations, to share their knowledge of a loving and compassionate God. Paul’s understanding of holiness has become triangular. It means love of God and neighbour – and neighbours are not just his fellow Jews, but the Gentiles.
From the history of both the nation, Israel, and the individual, Paul, we see that God’s call to belong to him involves the call to mission. This kind of God cannot be kept to ourselves. Mission is not an optional extra, but is part of a Christian’s DNA. Being holy means being like God – the God who, John tells us, loved the world to such an extent that he gave his only Son, so that none should perish (John 3.16). But this mission cannot be limited to the words of preachers or even to personal testimony. The call from God is to be holy – and for Christians, that means having the mind of Christ, and becoming like him. It means embodying the gospel, both as individuals and as a community. Mission is not a task to be assigned to a few chosen representatives, but a task for the whole Church, since the Church, as the body of Christ in the world, represents to the world what Christ is. What kind of image of Christ are we – as a community – offering to those among whom we live and work?
Notes
1. Preface to 1739 Hymns and Sacred Poems, in John Wesley, Works, Thomas Jackson (ed.), 1829–31, Vol. XIV, p. 321.
2. Similarly Leviticus 19.2; 20.26; cf. Exodus 19.6; 22.31; Deuteronomy 7.6.
3. See in particular IQS – The Community Rule.
4. See Philippians 3.4–6.
5. Genesis 12.3; 18.18.
6. Isaiah 43.3, 14; 45.11; 47.4; 48.17; 49.7.
7. Isaiah 2.2–4 = Micah 4.1–3; cf. Isaiah 55.5.
8. Isaiah 55.5; 60.1–3.
9. This is referred to in various Jewish writings, for example in Apoc. Moses (the Greek version of the Life of Adam and Eve) 20–1. By sinning, Adam lost his likeness to God. But in time the hope arose that one day this likeness would be restored, and men and women would once again reflect God’s glory. We find this hope expressed in Daniel 12.3 and 2 Corinthians 3.18. According to Exodus 34.29–35, Moses’ face shone with the reflected glory of God after speaking to God on Mount Sinai.
10. See, e.g., The God Delusion, London: Transworld Publishers, 2006, pp. 268–83
11. Cf. 1 John 1.1–3.
12. Cf. Galatians 4.4; Philippians 2.6–8; Hebrews 1.1–4; 2.5–18.
13. John 3.21. The Greek reads literally ‘doing the truth’. Cf. also 1 John 1.6.
14. Deuteronomy 6.5.
15. Leviticus 19.18.
16. To be sure, Paul quotes the ‘second’ command, saying that it contains ‘the whole law’, in Galatians 5.14, and makes no reference to the ‘first’; cf. also Romans 13.9–10. Love for God is apparently taken for granted. But this is because love for one’s neighbours is the corollary which needs to be spelt out.
17. Luke 10.25–37.
18. 1 John 4.20.
19. For the idea that Christians will have to give an account of their actions on the Day of Judgement, see for example 1 Corinthians 3.13–15; 2 Corinthians 5.10.
20. Cf. Romans 15.15–19.