Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." (NKJV)
What does it mean to be holy?
Recently two churches came under criticism for allowing Muslims to worship in their buildings. No, I’m not talking about allowing Muslims to come in and participate in their Christian worship services. These churches allowed Muslims to come in and use their buildings for Muslims prayer services: Christian churches allowing Muslim prayer services in their church buildings (http://www.abc24.com/news/local/story/Memphis-Area-Muslims-Worshiping-At-Christian/F5CZgzul4EegYgk_L9evNg.cspx).
To be honest, when I first read the news articles, I was confused. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to act or feel. After all, the pastors who were involved were honest and sincere in their belief that what they were doing was not only okay, but was approved of by the Lord. Steve Stone, the pastor from Heartsong Church in Memphis (one of the two churches reported), wrote in his blog: “Jesus said that people would know we are his disciples by our love” (from http://stevestonesr.wordpress.com/, August 12). It sounded so good.
So I began to ask myself why I was so bothered by it all. And I began to search the scriptures.
First, it’s important to know that Pastor Stone quotes the scripture wrongly. He begins quoting John 13:35, but fails to quote it in its entirely: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (NKJV). The “one another” refers to believers. The world will know that we are His disciples by our love for each other. The fact that he is wrongly quoting scripture is probably the first problem.
The second problem is to deal with how we are to witness. Many people think that we are given the liberty to become anything we need to be to compel people to the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul talks about becoming “as without the law” (v. 21) in order to win those around him. However, again, it’s important to look at the passage in its entirety. Some people have used this phrase—be come anything---to justify sinning in order to witness. However, in verse 21, Paul says, as a parenthetical phrase: “though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law.” In other words, he remains under the law not to sin.
When we allow Muslims to use our churches are we sinning?
Well, first of all, a church is simply a building. It’s not the Church. We are the Church, believers coming together. So, a church building is simply a building. Are we sinning when we allow Muslims to worship in our buildings?
Let me expand the situation. If we feel okay with Muslims using our buildings for worship, how about Wiccans? Or Hindus (who worship idols)? Or Satanists? The fact is, opening our buildings to worship by other religions delivers a false message both to those worshipers and to the unbelievers around us. What it says that we approve of what happens in those services. I believe that every pastor—including these two pastors—would draw the line at allowing certain worship behaviors (e.g. sacrificing children on an altar) within a Christian church building. Thus, if they allow some religions to use the buildings and not others, they are tacitly approving of those religions. They are tacitly giving their approval of Islam when they allow Muslim prayer services in their churches. They are saying that Islamic worship is valid and that it deserves a place to happen.
Is that what we should say as Christians? No, of course not. And it becomes easy to criticize these pastors until we personalize this situation by examining our own attitudes and behavior. Of course, most of us don’t have the authority to allow Muslims to worship in our church buildings. But we do have the authority to allow “worship” in the Church of our hearts. After all, we are the Church. What are we allowing in our own lives? And what is that saying to the world around us about what we tacitly approve of?
Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Paul tells us to shun fornication and adultery because of that. But we are also to shun any kind of sin, to live holy lives, to be holy as God is holy. And to be holy means to be without sin. What kind of sin do we welcome, embrace, enjoy? What idols do we allow in our lives and, as a consequence, tell those around us that these idols are okay? Do we embrace lewd pictures and language? Do we enjoy gossip and gluttony? Do we cling to our possessions and envy those who have more than we do? Do we wallow in anger and self-pity?
It’s easy to criticize the pastors of the churches who approve of Islam (and if you read the comments on Pastors Stone’s blog, you will see eventually that he does approve of Islam). But when I began to pray about this, I realized that I’m as guilty as he is of approving of sin within the Church when I fail to root out the sin in my own life. It’s just that my sin is more familiar, more personal. If I am going to be a true light to the world, it’s important that I allow the Holy Spirit to shine His light of revelation in my life, to reveal my sin, and then for me to confess and repent of it. The sin in my life doesn’t deserve a place to exist, doesn’t need to be protected. Rather, I need to choose to live a life that is holy, just as God is holy, and to shine that light to everyone around me.
© 2011 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
