Be Holy (Part Six)

Good day

We have been discussing the sanctification process, in other words becoming holy, from Philippians 2:12-16a for quite a few weeks now.

So what would the end result be that the Lord would like to see in us?

Philippians 2:15-16a tells us: “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life...”

From the passage above, which is the last section of the passage we have been discussing over the last number of messages, I have picked out a few key words describing what the Lord wants to see in us: blameless, harmless and without fault. The context within which this kind of life is to be lived is within a crooked and perverse generation – in other words completely different from the world. We would all agree that we live in a crooked and perverse generation, would we not?

The problem we have today – and they maybe even had those years, which is why Paul brought this up, is that Christians often blend in too well with this crooked and perverse generation, and most do not consider that what they do as wrong. We often justify ourselves with the fact that we are weak, or that all things are permissible (1 Corinthians 6:12), or that we are free in Christ. In all areas of life people fear to be different and then follow the crowd and in the process compromise a lot of individuality and happiness.

One issue that came to mind is for example film piracy. I know Christians that have a lovely Christian witness when it comes to words, but who download pirated films from the Internet by the hundreds. When I brought to their attention that it is stealing, my words were shrugged off and I was made felt that I am old fashioned. Needless to say they did not give the error of their ways a second thought – to them nothing was wrong with it. Some behaviour is intentionally corrupt, such as this example, but other behaviour is circumstantial, such as speeding because I am late. This can be changed through better planning, and the excuse that I am late would not change the fact that I still are open for blame, which affect my Christian witness as well as my relationship with the Lord and His blessing, since I disobey His commandments (John 14:21-23).

 We so easily justify our actions, but God's standard is clearly set in the Bible - “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), “become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault,” (Philippians 2:15) and so on. Then we ask why the Lord does not seem to answer our prayers.

Shall we jog our memories a bit and answer the following questions honestly to ourselves:

1. What is it in your life and behaviour that prevent you from being blameless?
2. Put differently; what in your behaviour can the world accuse you of/blame you for, in which you are none different from them, especially those hidden sins that nobody but you and the Lord know about.
3. How often do you harm others, whether it be emotionally by your words or attitude, financially by taking money that should not belong to you (even if you harm the government of big organisations, or the church) or spiritually by not sharing with them the love and gift of Jesus.
4. How many faults do you justify yourself for, in other words you know your should work at your weakness(es), but you accept it as okay, since you feel nobody is to judge you for it, even if this weakness harms others.

“For narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are a few who find it, (Matthew 7:14).” There is not much space for anything but you and the Lord on this road and the Bible states there are only a few that will find this way. So how then about the millions of people calling themselves Christians? “ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables, (2 Timothy 4:3-4).” “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

Dear friends, we have no time or space for a double life – a life that is divided between the Lord's desires for our life and our desires, which usually are those of Mammon, the god of money and materialism. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

Today I want to put all of us before the same challenge than Elijah did Israel in 1 Kings 18:21: “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” To Israel Baal represented the Lord’s enemy, so does mammon and self to us.

I think it is important to go into your inner room, to search you heart and ask how far are you short of being blameless, harmless and without fault in terms of God's standards as compared to the world's standards, for you are responsible for those “among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life,” (Philippians 2:16a). In other words, what does the world see – your sinful nature or the word of life you hold on to?

Holy Spirit, I want to be blameless, harmless and without fault, shining as a light in the world, holding fast the word of life. Please guide me.

Be Holy (Part Five)

Good day

In the last message we discussed one reason why we want to be holy – so we can see God and have a relationship with Him in His presence.

Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing (these are the things the Lord prompts us to do in order to change), that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life...”

Now that we know why we are working out our salvation as per the passage above, we are going to look at how we are to do it. We find the answer in the next verse: “... for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” How do we understand this then? We are told to work, but in the very next verse we are told that it is God doing the work. Are we then back to passive Christianity where we live as we like, believing that God will change us at His leisure, only to discover years later that nothing has changed?

This is a team effort. The next sentence in the passage above tells us to “do all things without complaining and disputing.” I have added a sentence in there that you have read a few times by now. When we accept Jesus and are born again, our spirit is saved from damnation and renewed, but we have a lot of carnal behaviour that need to be dealt with. The Holy Spirit then starts working at the purification process of our soul and Satan starts counteracting this work. Our flesh (sinful nature or carnal man) kicks back in rebellion, and the spiritual man supposedly works with the Holy Spirit at renewing ourselves. This whole process takes place in our mind and is based on decisions which are executed by actions. Romans 12:1-2 summarises it well: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (we are encouraged to present ourselves so God so He could work in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure – Philippians 2 above). And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” 

We see from a number of passages that our relationship with the Lord is compared to that of the potter to the clay, for example in Isaiah 64:8: “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.”

At the day of our salvation, the Potter has bought this lump of clay and therefore delivered it from getting lost into purposelessness. Then He starts working at it to change it into something useful. The problem with human clay or a living sacrifice is that we have our own will. The Potter cannot just form us at His good pleasure - He has to work with us. We have to work along with Him. He will for example see some impatience that needs to be removed and will then create circumstances to test our patience so we can see what we are like. Unless we are in relationship with the Holy Spirit we will sense the test, but will not respond to it appropriately, because we have not heard the Holy Spirit telling us where He is going with our life.

The Holy Spirit may tell you: “We need to get rid of that impatience in your life, since I am love and can therefore not abide with impatience, which actually is lovelessness, since love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4).” Can you imagine you getting impatient with those around you, or with God, in the throne room of heaven? If you are prepared to work with the Holy Spirit, He will allow circumstances to test your unacceptable behaviour, and it is up to you whether you are going to work with Him to get rid of that behaviour.

I have had a serious challenge the past couple of weeks. My love, in reaction to people’s behaviour, was tested. The way I responded left me less than proud of myself, and I came to the conclusion I had to deal with that lack of love in my heart. This is not going to come by itself, for the Holy Spirit is going to lead me in dealing with it, but I will have to make a decision as to how I will exercise love in future. During this difficult time Julia, my wife, was worth a pot of gold to me.

Sanctification (becoming holy) is a process that the Lord works in us with our permission and cooperation, and we need our Christian family to support us as we go along, and at the same time we need to support others.

Holy Spirit, please help me to follow your guidance.

Be Holy (Part Four)

Good day

Since we are working on this passage, I am leaving it on here for now, but today we are looking at another reason why we need to be holy.

Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing (these are the things the Lord prompts us to do in order to change), that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life...”

We hear so much these days about the Lord being merciful and in complete control of our lives, creating the impression that we do not need to do anything apart from enjoying the Lord and singing praises to Him. If this is true, why would the above and many similar passages then be emphasized in the Word of God?

The Holy Spirit had these written in the Word because “without holiness no-one will see the Lord,” (Hebrews 12:14). This is interestingly enough written in the context of the passage on God’s discipline (Hebrews 12:4-13). You may decide for yourself whether you are prepared to submit to the Lord's discipline in order to be set aside for His plans for your life (becoming holy).

 

Why would we want to see the Lord and how would we see Him? This could be viewed from two perspectives – seeing the Lord one day in heaven and seeing Him whilst we are on earth. Only you as an individual can answer the question why you want to see the Lord. I have mentioned the following comparison before in my writings as a way to understand these things. I once reasoned with the Lord on the subject of the fairness of rewards to Christians. I told Him that surely Christians who sacrifice their entire life for His service could not receive the same privileges in heaven than those who accept Jesus and then live couch-potato-like, self-indulgent lives. I then saw a vision of old Jerusalem set amongst the surrounding villages. Inside the walls was the King's palace with its gardens and in the palace was the courtroom where the King abides.

I was then shown three passages:

1. Mark 16:16: He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
2. John 3:3: Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” and in verse five  “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
3. Hebrews 12:14: Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

I believe the Lord revealed to me that those who just believe in Jesus, but do not work on a relationship with Him, will go to heaven, but will live in the New Jerusalem outside of the King's palace. Those who were born again will see and enter the Kingdom of God, in other words will enter and live in the palace, but will not see the Lord; and those who sought holiness and an intimate relationship with the King of kings will see the Lord and fellowship with Him in His courtroom. In short, the kind of relationship we have with Him on earth, whether aloof or intimate, will just continue in heaven. Is this a good motivation to work at holiness and obedience as per Philippians 2:12-16?

When we grasp understanding of something, we usually use the expression: “I see”. In such a situation we do not really see something with our optical eyes, but do so with our eyes of understanding. This is the other way to see God - by Him revealing Himself to us. We then see Him with our spiritual eyes – not as a figure, but as a person in His way of thinking, His personality, His plans and motives, His character and His will with our lives. Jesus made a profound statement in John 14:21, which I think receives too little attention in the Christian fraternity: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Other translations use the words ‘reveal’ and ‘show’ in the place of the word manifest. In other words Jesus said He will make Himself visible to our spiritual eyes if we care enough to consider His instructions important enough to obey – thus setting ourselves aside for Him and being Holy.

We then read in verses 22-23 of John 14: “Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, 'Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.'” Those living holy lives will be loved even more by Father God and therefore the relationship will be so intimate, such as in a family environment, that revelation will be automatic.

Would you like to see the Lord? Then separate yourself from the flesh and the world and obey Jesus’ instructions.

Lord, I want to be holy.