In conclusion, it is advisable to point out the reason for laying stress on the primary conception of a7£os in our interpretation of the term in the NT. It is impossible to miss, in the application of a.yi.u3(fvvq to Jesus in Ro 1^ or in the frequent con- junction of the S.yio$ and Kadapos groups of words, as in Eph 5-^*-, He 9^*, or in many of the uses of a7tos (e.g. 1 P 1^^), the sense that perfection of moral character is intimately bound up with the term, and is never absent in the thought of the NT wTiters. Wherein, then, consists the signi- ficance of the fact that the primary meaning of a relationship to God or to Christ is always dominant ? Why is it so pre-eminently a religious rather than an ethical conception ? It is very remarkable that an idea common to all ancient religions, where often it has an origin and expression in material- istic forms of thought, should so persistently re- appear in the early Christian religion. Undoubtedly thereby the content of the ideal Christian character has been enlarged, deepened, and purified. Holi- ness comes before morality, as the source before the river. In the Christian ethics, there is no
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HOLINESS, PURITY
HOLINESS, PUIUTY
divorce between holiness and virtue, nor can there be. The choice of men by God, His call, and His setting of them apart for His service — an act some- times conceived as not a thing of time merely, but begun in the far-otf moment of pre-mundane exist- ence 'in Christ Jesus' (Eph 1^) — must have increased a thousand-fold the grandeur of the moral motive presented even to the weakest, most despicable, and most unworthy ' saint.' The thought is indeed conceived in the Spirit of Him who invited all to receive the love He came to reveal, and established for all time in the heart of His Church the value of each individual life before God, the Fatlier. Moreover, the gift of the Holy Spirit meant essenti- ally tliat all the graces of the Christian character had their origin in the gift and grace of God Him- self. The initiative lies with Him. Love is the fuUilling of the Law. Christian conduct is not a task set by God, bat a sharing of the Divine nature ; not a doctrine, but a life.
' To the men who wrote the NT and to those for whom they wrote, the Spirit was not a doctrine but an experience ; they did not speak of believing- in the Holy Spirit, but of receiving the Holy Spirit when they believed ' (Denney, DCQ i. 731»).
The gospel of Christ has ever been attended with the risk of antinomianism, a risk that it has always been willing to take and able to meet (Gal 5'^ lio 6'^). The present-day phenomenon of 'practical' Christianity, as distinct from spiritual and de- votional— 'enthusiasm for humanity' — is really, in its fundamental conception, out of accord with the teaching of the NT on holiness, as a summary of the Christian character. What characterizes the NT writers everywhere is their 'enthusiasm for God,' as revealed in Jesus, and the social conscience is a manifestation from the same re- ligious_ source. 'Thy brother for whom Christ died' is the conception that has revolutionized social life. The term ikyiot in its moral demand dredges the conscience of men, and reaches to the very springs of human conduct (cf. 2 Co 7'). The same predicate 07105 can be used of God and of man ; and where the need of a substitute is felt, none worthier can be found than in the great say- ing, iaeade oOv ufxels riXeiot ws 6 Trarrjp v/iQi/ 6 ovpdvios reXeids ianv (Mt b^"^). The notion of 'Christian perfection' found in 1 Jn (5^^ etc.) can only be reached by realizing that in the Johannine thought the OT conception of holiness is for the most part expressed in more or less mystical fashion under the influence of Greek thought as ' union with God in Christ,' but that, notwithstanding, the Johannine ' sinlessness ' is not in the end faultlessness. It is rather the inevitable issue in character of complete loyalty to Jesus Christ (see PERFECT, Perfection).
II. Purity. — There are two groups of words in the NT that are translated ' pure,' ' purify,' ' purge,' or 'cleanse.' In the RV 'cleanse' is substituted for ' purge ' of tlie AV in certain passages, but is re- tained in I Co 5^ 2 Ti 2-', He P 9'^- 22. (l) Ka9a.p6$, Kadapii'u) (Hellenistic form of Kadaipuj), Kadapia-/j.6s, KadapoT-qs ; Kadalpui ; diaKadapi^uj ; Kadap/xa, irepiKci- Oapjxa ; aKadapros, aKadapaia ; (2) ayv6s, ayvi^u, aYJ/i- TT}s, ayvCis ; ayvela ; ayvia-fiSs. In addition we have /SaTTrto-jUcSj, in the sense of 'cleansing,' in Mk 7^, He 6^ 9'"; pavriiia, pavncrfids {tr. 'sprinkle,' 'sprink- ling'), especially in Hebrews; eiXiKpivris ('pure').
The ideas of purity and holiness are most clearly associated if we consider their joint affinity with the ancient religious notion of tabu. Tlie subject cannot be fully entered upon here, but Robertson Smith (BS^, p. 152 If.) and A. S. Peake (' Unclean, Uncleanness in IIDB) should be consulted. It is of advantage, for tlie sake of clearness of thought, to note that in ancient religion the notion of ' un- cleanness ' is primary and positive, and that ' clean- ness' is really its opposite, and the negative form. This consideration is of importance as being really