There was quite a mix-up at the Duke University Hospitals in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina. Sometime in November 2004, maintenance workers had drained hydraulic fluid from the hospital elevators into empty detergent drums and then didn't get rid of the drums. Through a strange series of events, the drums were mistakenly redistributed to the people who clean surgical instruments. It took two months and 3,800 surgeries before anyone figured out something was wrong.

Washing the instruments in hydraulic fluid was not an effective means of sterilization. The biggest question is, what kind of damage has been done to the patients? No one was sure what the petroleum residue might do to people. The hospital's head honcho assured the public, "We want to give people the message that we care about our patients," and no doubt they do. But if their instruments weren't safe, they were a threat to their patients no matter how much they cared.

A church careless about holiness is like that! We may care about our people, but we're a danger to them nonetheless. It isn't enough to share the gospel with the lost; we must also be sure we act in holy ways and teach holiness as a way of life, lest we harm the people of God.