By Russell F. Metcalfe, Jr. - Pastor, Atwater, Ohio
April 11, 1962
THE SANCTIFIED YOUNG PERSON starting to build a career and home has every right to an ambition that looks ahead to significance and success. Holiness does not mean a false humility that makes one willing to be nothing at all, but rather a real and vital devotion to Jesus Christ that makes us willing to be anything at all that He directs. For "nothing" in the center of Christ's will is better than "everything" in merely human standards.
Often older holiness people tender their well-meaning advice, "When you are sanctified, expect the world to look down on you!" But they have emphasized the shame of the Cross until their message comes out: "Holiness young people, accept your inferiority!" This pessimistic outlook goes onto show the impossibility of successful competition where others have lower standards of business ethics and conduct.
But an inferiority complex just is not an integral part of the experience of heart purity, any more than any other unhealthy self-absorption might be. Holiness young people need not feel that their doctrine and experience put them in any way beneath their worldly counterparts.
In the realm of pleasure and enjoyment, perhaps not the most important, but still a favorite point of contention, the experience of entire sanctification does not make a young person inferior.
Jesus never destroys real happiness or pleasure! The happiest, the most truly humor-full people on earth are those who know Jesus Christ in His fullness. True, much that passes for humor and entertainment in a laugh-centered world loses its attraction. But in the place of tinsel and suggestive wit and gaudy garbage, God gives His sanctified young people a laughter that is pure gold, without any taint of bitterness. There is something that approaches the holy in the clean, dear laughter of a sanctified company! Is this in any way inferior?
In family relations and responsibilities the words of Jesus are often quoted to show that putting God absolutely first puts the family in a position of being "hated" or neglected. And, as a matter of fact, there are occasions when obeying God's will means less money or luxury, or even on occasion, greater sacrifice.
But it has been documented so many times as to be a matter of mathematical fact that the children of homes where there is a certainty of purpose, a vitality of worship, and an unfeigned faith on the part of the parents are the very richest and most privileged of all offspring, whatever the physical circumstances. Is it inferiority to give such a heritage, a heritage beyond any monetary calculation?
And, finally, in the matter of ambition itself, of "making good" in a career or profession, holiness of heart and life should enhance a young person's chances for success and not, as many contend, destroy those possibilities. The very principles which make for success diligence, alertness, honesty, persistence, and the like—are enhanced and reinforced by the very fiber of the sanctified character. Unwillingness to compromise principles, to make shady deals, to misrepresent products may seem liabilities to many, but this honesty is basic to long-term success.
In any legitimate business and profession God needs His sanctified people in places of responsibility. For holiness young people to attempt less than their utmost in their chosen fields of endeavor is to cheat God of the influence they might wield for Him and His kingdom if they were faithful in this matter of sanctified ambition. No one looks down on a young person who hears God's call to full-time missionary or pastoral work and then plunges into that work with the determination to be the very finest missionary or pastor or evangelist he can be,
But the same lofty quality of devotion belongs to that sanctified young person who, earnestly seeking God's best, but feeling no special call to service, chooses a life vocation with a sense of destiny, and strives to make his life's work a witness and an influence for God's glory and the salvation of souls.