Skip to content
priorities in Christian life
The Main Thing

The Main Thing

  • About
  • Faith Blog
  • Faith Hope and Love and Contact

Seeking Holiness – Our Heart With God

Jim January 28, 2023 Theology

Seeking holinessGod is holy, Can we be holy? How do we relate to holiness? Is seeking holiness our goal? Well, first lets see the Bible command.

15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[a]

And take a look at this:

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

To me, the most compelling text is in John 3.

2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Think for a moment. God says be like me, holy. Then, he writes that if we hope to be in heaven with God, then we should naturally purify ourselves from all unholiness. See also Confess Your Sins to Each Other.

Seeking Holiness With The Right Thinking

First, let me note, the kingdom of God is not a place of fear to earn God’s approval. We do not seek holiness to placate God.

We also must be careful not to seek holiness to gain approval in our Christian fellowship. Pride is dangerous to our souls.

Let me come back to naturally purifying ourselves. If we have come to faith by surrendering ourselves to God who loves us, died for us, and know us better than we know ourselves, then naturally, we want to be like this great God who claims us.

It is our admiration for and love of God our Father that draws us to His culture and way of living.

So holiness is something God is working out in us. In truth, God often purifies us the most by taking us through hardship.

One other command around this topic is found in Romans 12:2.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

One key is that if we conform to the world, the American culture, a political party or any other such group, then we are conforming to the world and not letting God transform us inwardly.

Note again God is doing the transforming, We must make ourselves available to be transformed.

We surely need to spend to me with God to become like him.  As children of God, we need to spend time with mature Christians who have grasped this idea. We become like those we spend time with. God is at work in us. Are we available to be transformed? Is our heart position to seek holiness? Spend time with others on the same path and especially spend time with God, Our goal is to be like him.

facebookShare on Facebook
TwitterTweet
FollowFollow us
What Does It Mean To Be Born Again?PREV
What is Holiness?NEXT

Primary

Recent Posts

  • Care for the Alien Among You
  • What About Life in the Spirit?
  • God is Bigger Since 1277AD
  • God Is Not Our Grandfather-He is More
  • New Life Already Began

Recent Comments

  • Jim on Chinese Church Faith Report
  • Anonymous on Chinese Church Faith Report
  • Brenda Hanson on Started a Blog for God and Did Not Pray
  • Carling S Labitoria on A Lesson Learned From My Great Grandfather
  • Donata on Faith Without Religion – Who Started That?

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019

Categories

  • About Me
  • Church Work
  • Culture/Sociology Issues
  • Family Issues
  • outside input
  • Theology
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Created with Taproot