This week the Book Club comes to the end of our discussion of The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung. I hope that you have been as blessed by this book as I have. It’s been both encouraging and challenging to me as I continue press on toward personal holiness.
I found chapter 8, which focused on the Christian’s relationship to sexual immorality, to be very perceptive and eye opening. I think DeYoung is correct in observing the increased sexualization of not only our culture, but the daily lives of many Christians. Though the chapter seemed oddly specific when compared to the rest of the book, I am in agreement with the topic needing to be stressed given our current sexualized climate. DeYoung argues that sexual immorality is a common blind spot in many Christian’s lives today and one that those intent on pursuing holiness need to contemplate more deeply. He helps us to do so by bringing to light now our union to Christ effects our purity in this area:
Therefore, when you engage in sexual immorality…it’s as if the members of Christ are engaged in sexual sin. To put it bluntly, if you shack up with a whore it’s like dragging Christ into bed with her too. When you put your faith in Christ, you become one spirit with him. So when you put your sexual organs where they don’t belong, you are putting the Lord Jesus where he doesn’t belong.
This is particularly convicting in the area of entertainment. Would Christ find the show I am watching entertaining? Would he laugh at that one-liner? Why am I watching this if the one I am joined to (Christ) finds it offensive and perverted? Though I feel as though my husband and I already limit the types of TV shows and movies we watch, I still think there is room for improvement in this area.
Chapter 9, Abide and Obey, was another favorite of mine. In this chapter DeYoung walks through several practical ways that we can encourage the growth of holiness in our lives. Each practice is a different way that we are to commune with the Lord: prayer, reading the Word of God, fellowship with other Christians, and the Lord’s supper. These methods of communing withe the Lord Jesus are imperative to the pursuit of holiness because it is as we draw near to Christ that we will look most like him:
We must always remember that in seeking after holiness we are not so much seeking after a thing as we are seeking a person. The blessings of the gospel–election, justification, sanctification, glorification, and all the rest–have been deposited in no other treasury but Christ. We don’t just want holiness. We want the Holy One in whom we have been counted holy and are now being made holy. To run hard after holiness is another way of running hard after God. Just as a once-for-all, objective justification leads to a slow-growth, subjective sanctification, so our unchanging union with Christ leads to an ever-increasing communion with Christ.
This chapter was particularly helpful in connecting the dots between practicing spiritual disciplines and depending on the grace supplied through the gospel of Jesus Christ. These disciplines, like reading the Word and prayer are only effective in our pursuit of holiness if their purpose and goal is to draw us nearer to the Savior.
After encouraging us to lead a life of constant repentance and humility in chapter 10, DeYoung ends his book with these words which do a wonderful job of summarizing all that we have read and learned:
God want you to be holy. Through faith he already counts you holy in Christ. Now he intends to make you holy with Christ. This is no optional plan, no small potatoes. God saved you to sanctify you. God is in the beatification business, washing away spots and smoothing out wrinkles. He will have a blameless bride. He promises to work in you: he also calls you to work out. “The beauty of holiness” is first of all the Lord’s (Ps. 29:2, KJV). But by his grace it can also be yours.
Discussion Questions for Week 4
As you read this week, come back to this post and join in the conversation! Leave your thoughts in the comments!
1. How do you see our Christian culture influenced by the sexual culture we live in? Do you think that you have been influenced in this way? What practical changes are you going to make to protect yourself from sexual sin?
2. How have you experience communion with Christ through the four methods DeYoung mentions in chapter 9? In what ways would you like to improve your communion with him?
3. What has been the most challenging part of this book for you? What has been the most encouraging?
Can’t join in this month? Join us next month as we read Feminine Threads by Diana Lynn Severance.
Find The Book Club on Facebook by clicking here!
Question 1:
I also thought this chapter seemed a little specific compared to the others, but I agree it’s an important aspect of holiness that needs addressing in today’s culture. It did make me stop and think a bit about the TV shows I watch and how much of that I think is ‘normal’ and I’m not shocked by any more. I thought this quote was particularly asute:
“God doesn’t ask us to get familiar with sexual immorality on the big screen, TV screen, or smart phone screen so that we can engage the culture. He commands us to get away.”
Question 2:
The third method, fellowship with other Christians, is always the most difficult with us because of our situation. Living in another country and experiencing church through a language that’s not your own isn’t always very easy, and it’s frustrating not being able to communicate exactly what’s on your heart during Bible study times because you just don’t have the right vocabularly to express what you want to say, or you’re afraid you’ll make too many mistakes. We also live in an area with unreached people groups, and for the handful of believers it’s impossible to find consistent, meaningful fellowship. My encouragement to others is to never take for granted the local church you go to back home, no matter how quirky and imperfect it is!
Question 3:
For me, I think, the challenge I come away with is to take holiness more seriously and realise that I have to do more on my part to walk in obedience to Christ’s commands and live in communion with Him on a daily basis. I was encouraged to be reminded that every effort, however imperfect, in that direction is pleasing to God.
Catherine, I can understand how it would be difficult to feel the same kind of connection with those who speak another language. Isn’t it wonderful to think that one day we will all understand one another and be able to freely praise the Lord in the same language! What an incredible day to look forward to! Thank you for encouraging us to not take the commonality of language for granted. It truly is a blessing.
I too, am encouraged by the fact that our efforts are pleasing to the Lord, no matter how feeble they are!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts so consistently Catherine. It has been a joy to get to interact with you!
1. How do you see our Christian culture influenced by the sexual culture we live in? Do you think that you have been influenced in this way? What practical changes are you going to make to protect yourself from sexual sin?
I think this chapter is one that needed to be included in a book on holiness and especially this one titled “The Hole in Our Holiness” because how can we claim a life of holiness while participating in sexual immorality. DeYoung gives great scripture references in this chapter for fleeing sexual immorality and also in the end of the chapter comfort and hope to those who may be struggling in this area of their life. It’s a great chapter that confronts and sheds light on a big “hole in our holiness” that will hopefully set free anyone who reads this book that is struggling in this area. I agree with DeYoung’s statement that “sexual immorality is one of our high places.” Many Christians have compromised in this area as we are daily flooded by a sexual culture. You can turn to any channel on the T.V. and be bombarded with sex in one way or another. Even the T.V. commercials are laced with sexual references. We don’t really watch much T.V. anymore because of all the filth that is on it. When we do watch T.V. – for sports for instance, my husband or I will keep the remote handy to change the channel should an inappropriate commercial or show preview come on during a commercial break. And as I stated in one of my earlier comments, our family only watches movies rated G or PG. We just do not want to subject ourselves to what we know is not pleasing to the Lord…it is very clear in His word. I also like this quote, “We have to take a hard look at the things we choose to put in front of our faces.” And, “Sexual immorality is everywhere to see, and too few of us with the mind of Christ are bothering to close our eyes.” Well said DeYoung!
2. How have you experience communion with Christ through the four methods DeYoung mentions in chapter 9? In what ways would you like to improve your communion with him?
I have experienced communion with Christ through a particular hard circumstance I’ve been going through. Looking back before this circumstance began, I remember my heart’s cry was to grow closer to God and that is exactly what has happened as I have been walking through this circumstance since June 2012. I can see how He has used this time to draw me close to Him, to experience Him in personal ways that before I knew only as head knowledge. I have communed with Him through prayer as I have cried out to Him and reminded Him of the promises He’s given to me in His Word…using those promises as actual prayers knowing that “His Word will not return void.” Thus, I can see how I have also communed with Christ through the word of truth. I would like to improve my communion with Christ by being more intentional in my Christian relationships/fellowship outside the four walls of my church. I am a Children’s Pastor’s wife, on the church board, and the church secretary, so I am definitely involved in our church. The Lord has been dealing with my heart lately and laid “intentional” on my heart concerning my friends in church. So I’m trying to be more intentional in doing things together outside of the church to build those relationships.
3. What has been the most challenging part of this book for you? What has been the most encouraging? The statement DeYoung makes in Chapter 10 sums up what I want to be carefully sensitive to in my pursuit of holiness: “…because those most eager to be holy are often most susceptible to judgmentalism and arrogance. Everyone in love with the idea of personal holiness…should pay attention to the words of Andrew Murray: ‘There is no pride so dangerous, none so subtle and insidious, as the pride of holiness.’” I don’t want to be judgemental, or arrogant, or prideful in my pursuit of holiness. My desire is to live a life of holiness so that other Christians in my life can see the changes in me and my life and know that holiness in their life is possible too. As much as I want holiness in my life…I want it in the life of my friends as well. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1). We can experience that freedom now! That is very encouraging to me!