Will Holiness Make Me Joyless?

Many people hear the word holiness and picture a frown. They imagine a list of banned pleasures and a life without laughter. Professor Gary Maxey wants to correct that picture.

The image he uses

In his book on the Highway of Holiness, Professor Maxey opens with Isaiah 35. The Way of Holiness ends with the redeemed entering Zion "with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads." Gladness and joy overtake them, and sorrow and sighing flee away. He calls holiness a beautiful picture.

Why people fear it

He says some people hold a negative view of holiness. It seems restrictive, somber and undesirable. He traces this partly to a wrong picture, in which holiness is a list of rules about clothing, entertainment or hair. When people think this way, he says, they turn their backs.

His answer is that God invites us to a life of victory and not to a list of restricted activities. Holiness is not something we struggle to do, but a life of joy and victory that we live.

What the cleansed heart feels like

When Professor Maxey describes the purified heart, the words are gentle. Gentleness and humility. Love and meekness. Generosity. Openness. He speaks of great peace for those who love God's law (Psalm 119:165). His own testimony of new birth speaks of heaven on earth and a life of excitement.

Cost and joy together

He is honest that deeper surrender can be painful. He cries when he tells of some of his own steps. But the cost is not the end of the story. He says obedience is painful, yet sweet, and it leads to blessing, joy and strength into eternity.

Is a serious life a joyless one?

Professor Maxey would say no. The people he admires are described as dominated by love, humility and faith. Joy follows when the heart is no longer divided.

Try this

Read Isaiah 35 slowly. Then list three things you think holiness would take from you. Next, ask God to show whether any of the three is something he wants for you.

Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey.