Background
In a recent meeting, someone read a passage from Joyce Meyer — see the attached copy — with the title You Can’t “Catch” Holiness. There are some of her writings that have inspired me, but this one struck me as such an odd interpretation of how holiness works that I kept thinking about it for several days. I was especially dubious about the implication that we need to be careful who we hang around with because their “unholiness” might infect us. That seems completely at odds with how Jesus acted. You might like to read the attached copy before reading my criticism.
On infections and reflections
If you think of holiness as something we must *do* then you can end up with a very defensive and cautious approach to ethics and to relationships. That may be part of the old Law-based approach to holiness and the Pharisee’s dedication to avoiding any action that could possibly be interpreted as violating any of God’s rules. But Jesus lived with an open handedness that was the opposite of defensiveness. He touched lepers and dead bodies and menstruating women and allowed a “sinful woman” to wash his feet, all with apparently no fear that they were going to contaminate him with their “unholiness”.
Jesus did have some things to say about how one person influences another. He did warn about being misled by the “yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6-12), but that is more about encouraging thoughtful skepticism towards their teaching than about becoming unholy by associating with them. On the other hand, I was reminded recently about us being salt and light. When Jesus calls us the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), at least part of what he means is that although we are just a small grain of spice, we flavour and preserve whatever we are part of. Our saltiness affects the people around us. When Jesus tells us to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16) he assumes light/goodness/holiness are infectious, that we pass them on to others.
Paul gives another example of how holiness is infectious: “For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband.” (1 Corinthians 7:14)
It is true that “God has no grand-children” (Luis Palau) — i.e. that each of us becomes a direct child of God rather than inherit that relationship by osmosis from our parents or anyone else. Nevertheless, as the light of Christ infiltrates us, we reflect (or another metaphor is that we overflow) that light to others. In doing so, our holiness can inspire and challenge others to step into the light. In that sense the holiness of God reaches through us to infect others.
The flip side is that darkness is not an actual property but just the absence of light. In the same way, unholiness is not an actual attribute or property that can be transmitted, but just the absence of holiness. Unholiness cannot be transmitted any more than darkness can.
Looking at Haggai more closely
It is worth asking why Haggai seemed to think differently than Jesus.
The first thing I’d note about the passage in Haggai 2:10-19 is that the main point is *not* about becoming holy or unholy by hanging around the right or wrong sort of people. Haggai is pointing out first of all that everything the nation does is defiled. They shouldn’t expect that they can bring some offering that will please God when other parts of their lives are opposed to God. It is like what James wrote — ” whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). And secondly, Haggai points out that regardless of the nation’s unworthiness, God is going to bless them anyway!!! (vv15-19).
The first regulation Haggai asks the priests about (v12) comes from a rule about the sin offering, in which “Whatever touches any of the [consecrated] flesh will become holy” (Leviticus 6:27). That’s the opposite of what Meyer concludes! But things are a bit more complicated because Haggai hasn’t asked about the garment that touched the consecrated meat, but about what happens to something else that subsequently touches the garment. The priests move beyond the principle of Lev 6:27 to say in effect “Although consecrated meat passes on its holiness to anything that touches it, those things can’t pass on the holiness any further.” Exodus 29:37 and Ezekiel 44:19 provides other examples of something holy passing on its holiness to anything that touches it. So in terms of what the Old Testament view says about the infectiousness of holiness, I think it is a bit ambiguous.
The second regulation Haggai asks about is based on Numbers 19:11 — “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days.” I’m not sure if that is primarily about holiness or simply about cleanliness. But what I think is quite clear is that Jesus rejects that principle.
Back to Jesus
Jesus’ life demonstrates a renewed creation in which we are holy because the grace of God makes it so. Neither consecrated meat nor dead bodies make any difference to that. We are not defiled by our surroundings nor infected with the unholiness of the people we hang around. On the contrary, holiness is best shown by hanging around those who nobody else values so that it rubs off on them.
That’s my 2 cents worth anyway.