Holiness A Way of Life

I was raised among Friends (Quakers) who believed it was essential to live a holy and righteous life.  That required a daily examination of one’s relationship with the LORD.  As Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” ICor.13:5

Living the Christian life is more than going to church, giving an offering or following the rituals of the church.  It is a daily journey, taking up the cross of Christ and following Him. 

Living a holy life is a matter of action and motivation, conduct and character, divine grace and human effort, obedience and submission and commitment to the will of God. Those who are sanctified are committed to people, self-discipline, self-giving, righteous and loving. It is a matter of Spirit-led individuals who walk with the LORD and display the fruit of the Spirit. To put it—we imitate Jesus Christ.

Our spiritual life is held together by patient, persistent righteousness, (doing right) by taking the side of God against sin in our own lives and the lives of others; of worshiping God in the Spirit as one who serves in the world with a single-minded, wholehearted, free and glad consecration to the business of pleasing God.  Our mission in life is to obey God rather than man.

In the High Priestly prayer of Jesus in the 17th chapter of John, he is praying that God may sanctify them by the truth; your word is the truth. Our sanctification does not take place in a vacuum but within the framework of our taking part of the nature of Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit. Our sanctification is the outward working of our being in Christ and Christ being in us--filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

To be holy means to be set apart and consecrated to the service of the LORD. Purification from sin is a precondition of our consecration. To be sanctified is to be dedicated to no ordinary service but reserved in the service of the LORD. The place of our service is in the world; we do not serve God by withdrawing from the world in a sacred and protected community but by engagement with the world and involvement in this life. The LORD prayed that his follower would travel safely in this world spreading the gospel of truth into the territory where Satan still holds influence. We must serve by helping to quench the thirsty by offering the Waters of Life, to feed the hungry with the Bread of Life and to shine the Light of the World in the darkness to guide the lost and wandering to Jesus Christ the Savior of the World.

Holy living requires us to engage with the lives of our neighbors, to become involved in the secular and impersonal structures of the institutions of the world. The value of our service lies in our difference from the world, even though we are in the world we are not of the world. Also, though we live in this world, we do not owe our allegiance to this world but only to the LORD who gave his life for us. We are called to be involved in our society, but we serve without conforming to its attitudes, mindsets, and behaviors. We must take care that our engagement in the world does not become assimilation and immersion in the views and mindsets of the world. Our values lie not in our friendships but with our differences from the accepted conventions of a godless society.

The nature of our service is based on the reason why we are different. We are different not because we wish to be opinionated, unattractive, backward, or better than others. We are different because the truth of God’s word has sanctified us. The Spirit of Jesus Christ can only reveal the truth. We are different because we are people of the Gospel which is the message of TRUTH-Jesus Christ.

I would give this caution, which we do not become arrogant and intolerant of those who do not have the truth. If we are indeed set apart for service of the Master, we will follow his example. Look how he interacted with his world-- he healed a grumpy old man at a pool-side, protected an adulterous woman, washed the feet of his disciples and associated with the common man and sinners, he engaged with both religious and political leaders of the day and remained righteous and holy. Our proper response to the world is to learn to think the thoughts of God and to live in conformity to his WORD.

It is from this relationship we have with God that the obligation of holiness flows from our heart. Because we are loved, we love, because we have been forgiven, we forgive because we are united with God we are joined with our fellow believers by the giving and receiving of their love and forgiveness. Out of this flows our mission to the world. We are modeling the life of Jesus Christ to those who do not know him. He said if I am lifted up, I will draw men to me. Christian holiness is more than an experience of grace; it becomes social and not individual. It is something shared and not hidden.

We must give of ourselves entirely to God and the doing of his will, just as Jesus did. Anything less than total consecration falls short of the dedication we see in him who sanctified himself that we too may be truly sanctified. To experience the life our Lord wants us to live, we must surrender to His will.