Not long ago I stumbled upon a picture of a man who claimed he was so holy he could not walk on the ground and thus needed to be carried around by his followers. First, some context:

The Bible is full of examples of God appearing on Earth, and turning the ground around Him “holy,” precipitating those in His presence to remove their shoes. Likewise, from Moses, to Joshua, to Isaiah, and others, there are numerous cases where the Lord comes down to Earth (or some go up to His throne) and speaks to us mere mortals, and in those cases it’s always US, never HIM, that changes our posture or clothing. We react to His holiness.

In the case of Isaiah, the prophet was so taken by the reality of God’s throne room that begged to be sent back to Earth, saying he was too unworthy to be in the presence of the Almighty. In response, God sent an angel to “purify” Isaiah so that he—the man—could be right enough to dwell, even temporarily, in the raw, unfiltered awesomeness that is the presence of YHWH.

And then there’s this dude…

This is not okay.

Last night in our John class, I went on a bit of a mini-rant about how we are no longer sinners of the world anymore but how we (Christians) are saved, saints, sanctified people, washed and made clean by the blood of Jesus. We are, in fact, “holy” (1 Peter 1:16) and ought to act like we are holy. What that DOESN’T mean is walking around as if we’re better than other people, needing to be carried around because we are too pure to step on the surface of the Earth. We are holy and we should act holy by not acting sinfully. That’s it. That’s all it means. We are not better than the lost. We are “better off,” but not “better than.”

God is SO holy that we need to take off our shoes when we stand in His presence. We are not so holy. No one needs to bask in our presence and if we ever act like they do, then we put ourselves in danger of judgment from the One whose presence is impossibly magnificent.

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

(1 Corinthians 10:12)

The man in the picture thinks he stands alone without God. Unless he humbles himself, he will fall.

~Matthew