Purity and Holiness

The girls and I have been reading When God Writes Your Love Story together. It is an excellent book on preparing for marriage. I especially appreciated this insight:

“Several generations back, Christianity in this country began to swing in an unhealthy direction, focusing on the holiness and righteous standard of God while excluding the crucial elements of love and grace. Christians tried to live uprightly in their own strength, without the enabling power of the Spirit of God. The result was a stiff religious legalism that pushed people away from the faith in droves.

Today, many have swung to the opposite extreme. Trying to balance the unloving, super-religious hypocrisy of past generations and redeem the bad reputation it gave to Christianity, a large number of modern pastors and Christian leaders have overemphasized the unconditional love and forgiveness of God. As a result, quite a few key elements of the true Christian life, such as holiness, righteousness, and purity have become taboo subjects in many churches…

But we cannot separate purity and holiness from the Christian life. God is love, but He is also holy. It is impossible for us to walk in darkness and light simultaneously. We cannot serve both sin and the kingdom of God at the same time. We cannot live a life of impurity and remain in unhindered fellowship with the King of kings.” –Eric and Leslie Ludy, When God Writes Your Love Story