Called to Holiness

Chris Roberts — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:21:44 +0000

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
1 Thessalonians 4:7-8

The words of Scripture are not words of advice. Through his Word, God has revealed to us how he expects us to live. These words ought to be welcome by us. We are wanderers lost in a dark forest and God has placed before us the map that will direct our way home. And yet we frequently treat the Bible as a book of suggestions or antiquated ideas rather than life giving revelation from God.

When God says, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy (Leviticus 19:2), he is not speaking to the religious elite or to the Jews only. He is speaking to us. God has not called us to live impure lives but to walk in holiness, to be holy as he is holy.

We must not disregard the words of God as given to us through other people. The preacher or teacher who tells you to be holy, the parent who tells you to avoid sin, the book that tells you to obey God – these are not agents working against you but are beacons of the light of truth, shining that light into your life. If you disregard such words it is not the messenger you ignore, it is the author. You disregard not man, you disregard God.

As you move throughout your day today, what events will try to sabotage your holiness? What temptations will be present? What traps will be in your way? Spot them and avoid them. Take seriously this word that God has called us to holiness. Be obedient to Christ and be holy as he who called you is holy (1 Peter 1:15).

Are You Walking in a Manner Worthy of God?

Chris Roberts — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:35:12 +0000

For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12)

How heavy this command that we walk in a manner worthy of God. Stop and consider his divine perfection, there is nothing to equal him! We would say it is unworthy of kings to dress in rags, but here we are in our rags, in the tattered garments of our actions, offering ourselves to God as though anything we do could be worthy of him.

But thus saith the Scriptures: walk in a manner worthy of God. God does not instruct his people to do the impossible. We cannot shake our heads and slouch our shoulders and mumble that we are unable to obey.

In Philippians 2:13 we learn how we can walk in a manner worthy of God: …it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Saint Augustine once prayed, “O God, command what you will, and grant that which you command!” The good we do is God at work within us. Knowing this, we realize that to walk in a manner worthy of God is to walk in such a way that our walking is God walking through us. His arm moves my arm. His power sends my feet across the earth.

Still, we must walk. We must move our feet and set our eyes on the hills he has called us to ascend. We must avoid the snares of the tempter, flee from sexual temptation, abandon consuming greed, put aside the ways of the world. We must stretch out our hands to the poor, open our mouths to the lost, lift up the eyes of the downcast, set straight the path of a wayward brother.

On the day of Christ’s appearing we will be found worthy but we will know it was not we ourselves who performed such deeds but it was Christ, formed within us, who carried out the works of righteousness through us.

Devotional Christian » holy

Called to Holiness

Are You Walking in a Manner Worthy of God?