Holiness

Holiness

J.C. Ryle in his book Holiness says that “we have too often been content with zeal for orthodoxy, and have neglected the sober realities of daily practical godliness.... There has been of late years a lower standard of personal holiness among believers than there used to be in the days of our fathers. The result is that the Spirit is grieved! and the matter calls for much humiliation and searching of the heart.”

In church we hear so often, ministers saying that we need to strive for holiness. We hear I Peter 1:16 saying “‘be holy for I am holy,’ says the Lord.” We hear how holy God is time and time again. But how many of us have ever wondered to ourselves about what it means to be holy. What does holiness look like in our society? 

If we are to seek to be holy like God, as we are commanded, we must understand what this even means. Holy as defined in a dictionary is to be without blemish, or untainted. We are to be pure. Like white cloths that have no dirt, no stains, no imperfections on them. Since we established in the last post that we are impure, we have sinned, we are no longer holy. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross paid for our debt if we repented. He washed away our sins with OXY Clean on steroids (lame analogy but paints a good picture). We have been made holy in His sight because we have been claimed as little Christs. We are to be like Him. He gives us His name, so we have that holiness that Jesus had. God looks at us and see His Son. We are completely pure in God’s sight, IF WE REPENT. When we come to faith in God, we then begin the process of sanctification, or being set apart. Basically we are becoming less and less like the world and becoming people that are not of this world. I Thessalonians 4:3 says “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.” But another version also says “God's will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.” Essentially, sanctification leads to holiness. It is the process by which we become holy. Though this will not be completed on earth, in heaven it will be finished. “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”- Ephesians 4:22-24... This is the change that needs to take place in our life! We need to be transformed by God. We should never be the same again. We are to seek to be like Him, loving, merciful, gracious, holy, and so much more. The fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5 sum this up well, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” All of these things should be found in our lives as Christians. Notice that it is the FRUIT of the Spirit not the FRUITS of the Spirit. You need all of them. One without the other does you some good but no where near as much as all of them together. they all go hand-in-hand. All are necessary in a Christian’s life. We need to work on these things everyday and ask God to teach and develop us in these subjects. 

Are you holy? Do you love your sin? If you love your sin AT ALL, you aren’t there. Keep striving towards the goal. Keep pushing on to be the man/woman God wants you to be. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”-I Peter 2:9-10... Do we live our lives in a way that would resemble that we are a holy nation, or a chosen race? Do we proclaim His name in our lives? He has done so much for us, yet we often treat Him as an inconvenience. Why is this family? Let’s be a generation that lives with God’s purpose and direction and is a holy nation, and a chosen people! Let’s seek to live holy lives from this day forth, sinning less and less. Breaking away from our lusts and addictions and turning to the Savior. 

Family, holiness has to be something that is in your core and works its way outward not the other way. Attitude before actions.

Blessings