Saturday, June 27, 2026

day no. 17,414: pietism in the skyetism (a modern soap opera)

“The besetting sin of pietism has always been that of wanting to be holier than the Bible.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing

Those who want to be clean can sometimes be tempted to want to be cleaner than the soap. The soap gets dirty because it gets them clean and they thank it for its service by throwing shade at it for being beneath them.

“Cleanliness is not next to godliness nowadays, for cleanliness is made an essential and godliness is regarded as an offence.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Defense of Nonsense

God got dirty by becoming flesh, walking among us, and taking our sins upon Himself, but that is beneath some people. They are too high and mighty to tolerate something like that. 

"Many great religions, Pagan and Christian, have insisted on wine. Only one, I think, has insisted on soap. You will find it in the New Testament attributed to the Pharisees." — G. K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers

Soap is good because it gets you clean, but soap is not God. Those who insist on being clean with come to resent the things that cleanse them and accuse them of being unhygenic.

"Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it." — G. K. Chesterton

Clean hands are required by God, but only available by grace through faith in Christ alone and those who have them think more about Christ than they do their own hands.

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