“It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is” (A.W. Tozer).
There is a huge push for morality among conservative Christians in our day. While that is not bad, is morality the same thing as holiness and spirituality? Can people pursue morality for sinful reasons and simply be whitewashed tombs being clean on the outside while the inner part is full of dead men’s bones? Notice how Tozer links moral practices and the inward attitudes. To take this one step more, for there to be spiritual power in the lives of believers they must be lovers of the truth of God. The link, then, is that true spirituality is the Holy Spirit working His character in people’s hearts and lives. Spirituality is simply to partake of the working of the Holy Spirit. To the degree that one has the Spirit or the degree that the Spirit is working is the degree that a person is spiritual.
If the heart of morality is outward behavior, then the name of the religion does not matter. However, if true morality requires the proper inward attitude and the inward attitude is inextricably intertwined with one’s idea of God, then morality is really a different issue than what is normally thought. True morality requires a person to have some truth about God in order to love God. There is no true inward morality apart from keeping the Greatest Commandment which is to love God with all of our beings. The Pharisees were rigid moralists and yet hated God. There are atheists who pride themselves on being moral. But without the inward attitude there is no true morality and the very acts of righteousness of men are sin and likened to filthy rags (Isa 64:7). There can be no proper inward attitude of love and reverence for God unless the truth of God is known and understood to some degree.
Rigid moralists who are without true love always set up rules that go beyond the bounds of Scripture. Liberals allow for a morality that is far less than the commands of Scripture. For there to be true morality, then, there must be a balance. There must be obedience to the commands of Scripture and yet there must not be additions to the rules. It is hard to maintain that balance. However, the rigidity of the moralists would be softened with love and those who love God desire to be holy as He is holy. In fact, true morality is really nothing but holiness and God is the standard and the power of holiness. A holy person is moral and is therefore like God.
If the Church desires to be like God, it should take note of the life and practices of Jesus. The Pharisees were horrified that Jesus would break their rules. They thought of Him as violating the Sabbath because He did not follow their rules about the Sabbath. Could it be that there is a “far right wing” in the Church today that has more in common with the Pharisees than with Jesus? The Christian is commanded to love his enemies, pray for them, do good to them, and to overcome evil with good. It appears that many bearing the name “Christian” seem to hate people who are opposed to them. Jesus, on the other hand, was a friend of sinners and saved His anger for the religious people of the day. It is enough to make one think about morality and what is important in the Church.
Let us explore this just a bit more. It takes a proper idea of God in order to live a life of true holiness. In fact, since God is the standard of holiness, there can be no true holiness without a proper concept of Him. To the degree, then, that people have shoddy or irreverent ideas of God is the degree that they are unholy people. That is true of rigid moralists as well. The ramifications for the Church are again enormous. As doctrine is thrown out and people are trying to unite around moral and social actions, God is being cast out of our thinking. We have a huge split along the lines of rigid moralists and liberal moralists. The one who loves God might have to separate with both groups. The Christian should never give up high thoughts of God and a great love for Him. He may be maligned, but this does not mean that he is not living in accordance with love for the true God. A high concept of God leads to a humble pursuit of true holiness. True holiness goes no further than true love for God and the neighbor. We must have a type of holiness that it is attractive to those who love God and yet might be hated by those who don’t love God. The Church must learn to pursue true holiness because it wants the glory and beauty of the holiness of God to shine forth from Her. If that is not pursued, the Church will have no spiritual power and it will slide into a cheap imitation of moralism as found in the Pharisees on the one hand and liberalism on the other.
God Loves... Himself 
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