When you gave your life to Christ, you discovered an urgency within your heart to
be more like Jesus every day. You were once a heartbreaker, but in Christ, you
became a peacemaker. It was a result of your salvation, and you were filled with
thankful appreciation for what the Lord had done for you. Now, you desire that the
Lord would do something with you. You want to make a difference because you
have become different. You may be sensing the call to missions, or you may
already be serving as a missionary. Whether your call is to missions, or to
something else, the same principles apply to all Christians concerning personal
holiness.
The following verse of Scripture is not difficult to understand. Read it carefully. (Hebrews 12:14 NKJV) “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without
which no one will see the Lord:” Even before you knew Him, God chose you to be
holy and without blame. He made this possible through the substitutionary
atonement of Christ. As a Christian, you are now positioned to live a life that
honors and is pleasing to God. The Apostle Peter writes, in 1 Peter 1:15-16
(NKJV) “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
{16} because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy”” Peter’s words are more than
an invitation. They are a biblical command to be holy. Make no mistake. God does
not consider holiness optional. Obedience to this command brings a harvest of
eternal blessings. A foundational truth for your life is that the only way God can
work with you and for you is if He can work in you. He will not force his way
upon you. Compliance will be your decision. What will it be, holiness and
blessings… or something else? When you choose holiness, you honor the Lord,
and embrace the opportunities of moral manhood.
When you commit to personal holiness, you infuse your character with all that it
takes to be successful and significant with your life. Look at your character
through the lens of wisdom found in the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the church in
Thessalonica. Focus on what you can learn from Chapter 4, verses 1-8.
(1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 NKJV) “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the
Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us
how you ought to walk and to please God; {2} for you know what commandments
we gave you through the Lord Jesus. {3} For this is the will of God, your
sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; {4} that each of
you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, {5} not
in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; {6} that no one should
take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the
avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. {7} For God did not
call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. {8} Therefore he who rejects this does not
reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”
Paul begins these verses by clearly establishing the will of God, which is our
sanctification. To be sanctified is to be separated from evil and set apart to God.
This is a continuous process, which takes us progressively closer to Christ. It leads
us to realize our potential as people of God. Paul is specific in his explanation of
what should be our highest priority. He teaches us to honor and keep our bodies
free of sexual immorality and lust. Then Paul moves on to the need to honor the
character of Christ within us. We are to display it as a testimony to our
commitment.
The sanctification Paul writes about is only possible because of God’s grace. We
need God’s help. We cannot sanctify ourselves, as it is solely an act of His grace.
Our proper response then, is to surrender every area of our lives to His Lordship.
Then, in our submission and surrender, we are to cooperate with His grace, letting
it shape our hearts, step-by-step. This will result in progressively become the
uncompromising people He called us to be.
There are two conditions for sanctification. First, you must have faith in Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior. Second, you must be willing to change, hungering to
become all you have the potential to be. Every Christian’s moral challenge is that
each of us “should know how to possess his (her) own vessel in sanctification and
honor…” True Christians value, to the extreme, their commitment to be honorable.
They refuse to be enslaved by ungodly passions and lusts.
Look carefully at your life today. Be honest with yourself. Find your character
weaknesses and put them on the altar. Ask God to help you be a shining light that
reflects His character, the character of Christ. Make a decision to rebuke the spirits
that would tempt you in any way to be less than what God called you to be.
Promise yourself to never give the devil any opening to spoil the plan of God for
your life. Then, be passionate about what God is passionate for. Establish biblical
controls over your thinking and therefore, your actions. Understand the value of
your own holiness. It will sustain you wherever you go, when most other things
might fail you. You are a winner and champion for the Lord Jesus Christ. Go out
and give the world a taste of what they can become. I know you can do it.