Many people think being a Christian is about living a clean life.  If your definition of clean is holy, then they are correct in this understanding.  Being a Christian is about pursuing holiness.  We serve a holy God and we are to be like Him, but that is only part of the deal.  I think there is a tendency for Christians to end up just looking like nerdy people.  A bunch of people who can not relate to the world and who are just spouting off morals that they may or may not be keeping themselves, but are now just weird in their connection to the world.  But they sleep good because they are clean.

And while God wants real holiness, what is often called clean living, to be pursued, I would argue that completely living out the faith is quite messy.  In fact many Christians are not messy enough.  To truly serve people and to truly love people, you have to be willing to get messy.  It is impossible to minister to real people who have real problems without getting dirty and being uncomfortable and even being scared at moments.  The real Christian life is messy.  Ask Jesus.  It was so messy for him that it cost him his life.  To truly honor God the way we need to in this world, we need to be people who keep our word, battle poverty, give up vacations to minister to those in need, work on relationships that are hard, visit prisons, meet real tangible needs, open our homes to broken people, drive some people to hospital visits or the store, etc.  This is messy, but it is the way it should be.