Holiness, the companion of righteous, is the next word to be addressed. One cannot be holy without being righteous and the reverse is true as well. Whereas righteousness is the only standard by which God will accept humans into his fellowship, holiness is the purity of believers mind (a quality of thoughts that lead to right behavior) that guides the setting apart (sanctification) of the believer from the ungodly ways of the world and makes possible the new behavior God expects of his people. (In other scriptures, the words sanctification and sanctify are used to translate the Greek words relative to holiness. The context will determine the Greek word used, the contextual meaning and intent.)

Purity is one way of describing holiness and it is essential when one counts themselves a believer in God and a follower of Christ. It means to be free from every defilement or that which is evil in and of itself. It seems as we look around the church scene today that very few understand the necessity of righteousness and holiness. Paul gives instruction in II Corinthians 5:17 about living in Christ. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. All sorts and kinds of unholy behavior can be seen in many “churches” amongst the people who claim to be believers. It is apparent that those people aren’t following the teaching from Paul about being a new creature. The old is still with them. They have not been sanctified in their minds to set themselves apart to live the new life in Christ. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)  At baptism, the believer is sanctified (set apart) by Christ and then the believer shows that  he or she is sanctified by doing as Paul instructed in Romans 12:2.

 In II Corinthians 7:1 Paul tells us more of what the believer must do relative to what God has done in Christ. (1) Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The message is that God has given the promise of salvation and eternal life to the church (the teaching of the promise is to all.) And as a member of the body Paul says that each one must cleanse themselves of filthiness and perfect holiness. In other words, God says the believers are clean and now the believers must begin to cleanse themselves of the worldly filth. If  non believers try to cleanse themselves without the blood of Christ to be pleasing to God, that is self-righteousness and worth nothing in his sight. It would be no better than the effort put forth by the Pharisees as told in the gospels. And it follows that self-righteousness can’t bring holiness of mind, thought and deed.

 Unfortunately, lessons on holiness are in short supply in many unscriptural churches. That is apparent when the practices of many denominations are examined. Of course, if righteousness isn’t taught there won’t be any teaching on the necessity of holiness. Several lessons that are most essential relative to holy conduct are found in Colossians 3:4-8. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Because Christ is going to return on some appointed day verse 4, Paul wrote in verse 5 to mortify (put to death) those things that are unholy in your conduct. Verse 6 is a reminder to the saved and unsaved of the consequences of disobedience to God. Verse 7 states that at one time the saved behaved in unholy ways. An in verse 8 he says to put off all those other ungodly behaviors, filthy communication which is obscene language and other discourse repulsive to God.

God demands righteous and holy of his people. It began in the Garden and continued with Noah after wickedness and evil were destroyed in the flood. Water destroyed evil and saved Noah and his family. That served as a pattern for what was to come thousands of years later. The message found in the Bible can bring joy to everyone who will obey it. Conversely, if disobedience is the way of life, misery on this earth will prevail and eternal separation from God will be the final end when Jesus returns.

07-09-2009 DEC

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