If the ‘version of holiness’ that you’ve been advocating for and attempting to live it out for yourself…makes you uptight and grumpy because no one else seems to be meeting those same standards, then your version of holiness is probably not the same one as God’s, who tells us: “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:15-16)

I say that because the ‘holiness’ we believers are to be actively pursuing leads us to having a heart like God’s. And if you want to know what God’s ‘heart’ looks like, then just look at Jesus because He was the manifestation of the ‘invisible God’ (Col. 1:15) who came to demonstrate God’s perfect love for us. (Rom. 5:8; John 3:16)

So when Jesus ‘commanded’ us to ‘love others as He loved us’ (Wednesday’s message-John 13:34-35), bearing the fruit that would show who His true followers were, He was in essence saying we were to be ‘like God’, who is ‘holy’.

Now if that makes you recoil a bit, hold on for a second and take a deep breath; as it is clear you too may have missed a few ‘lessons’ along the way. Truth be told, most of us who attend church have fallen way short in this area. Do the scriptures not teach that we are to be ‘godly’ (God-like)? And did Paul not teach that the ‘wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against ALL … ungodliness and unrighteousness…’? (Rom. 1:18). So anything that is ‘not like God’ is subject to coming under God’s judgements…which actually have been here for some time.(John 3:36). “Let no one deceive you with empty words…” (Eph. 5:6)

Are we not told in Romans 8:29 that we ‘believers’ are being ‘conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren’? And IF…we are abiding in Him, “we ourselves ought to be walking as He walked”(1 John 2:6). Why the very idea of calling ourselves ‘Christian’ is to suggest we are ‘Christ-like’, which is why I often say we’d be better off letting others call us that versus announcing to the world that we are ‘Christian’. I mean after all, in the beginning, we were originally ‘made in His image and likeness’ (Gen. 1:26-27) before sin corrupted us all (Rom. 3:23). And guess what? Sin still does that…which is why we are to ‘go and sin no more’ ...if we are serious about following Jesus. And those who abide in Jesus…no longer sin (1 John 3:6,9; 5:18)

I left off yesterday challenging you to come up with a simple definition of what holiness even looks like and how you might explain that to a young person if asked. What did you come up with? It’s a pretty important answer to have understanding of given we are told that ‘without holiness, no one will see the Lord’ (Heb. 12:14). Yes…you might want to read that verse again and go underline it in your Bible if it isn’t already.

So let’s see if the scriptures don’t paint out a simple way to help us understand what kind of holiness it is that God requires of us. And using that last verse in Hebrews 12:14- let’s now go read at Matt. 5:8 to see if Jesus tells us who are the ones that will… ‘see God’.

Now I hope we can all agree that before anyone comes to Jesus… our ‘hearts’ are defective and defiled. You can reference Jeremiah 17:9-10 and Mark 7:20-23 to confirm this. We should also be clear that we are not talking about our ‘pump’ that circulates blood through our body either. While the ‘soul’ usually refers to our ‘mind’ (psyche), it is understood that ‘heart’ speaks of our ‘spirit’ (little ‘s’) which was dead when we were apart from God. (Eph. 2:1). That’s why we have to come to Jesus if we want true ‘life’. (John 5:40; 10:10)

And when we ‘come to Jesus’…with ALL our heart…He begins the process of ‘clearing the land’ which is an OT expression that can illustrate how God wants to purify our hearts from all those ‘Canaanite nations’, just like He did with His people back when they entered the promised land. But in place of the Hittites, etc…think in terms of pride, greed, lust, anger, etc.

It really is amazing to see how all these verses start coming together to paint a clear picture of what it means to follow and look like Jesus. Take a peek at 1 Tim. 1:5 as we learn what the purpose of the commandment is- producing ‘love from a pure heart’. And IF…we are being ‘led by His Spirit’, which is what the true ‘sons of God’ do, (Rom. 8:14), then we are removing and putting to death all those vile things that reside in our hearts… in order that we might become more like Him. This is what it means to be ‘perfected’ in His love- (1 John 4:12,17)

Friends…this is not some ‘option’ for us either. So when Paul says, “having these promises beloved, let us cleans ourselves from All filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting… holiness’ in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1)…there’s good reason for it.

James was a bit more direct and to the point as his letter confronts much of the double-mindedness that existed back in his day where people were ‘blessing God’ out of one side of their mouths and then ‘cursing men’ from the other side, saying ‘these things should not be happening’. (James 3:9-10). After calling them ‘adulterers’ for wanting to be ‘friends with the world’ (4:4) he exhorts strongly the need to repent and ‘submit to God while resisting the devil’ (4:7-9) exhorting us to ‘cleanse our hands and …purify our hearts’.

What does the devil have to do with any of this? Well, there’s good reason we are warned repeatedly to ‘guard our hearts’ and to ‘give no place to the devil’ (Eph. 4:27). Do you recall what happened to Ananias and his wife back in Acts 5? It seems that Satan ‘filled their hearts’ (3) which led to God’s swift judgement on them (5-11)

A bit long today, and yet so much more to share. No wonder Jesus said this path that leads to life would be a narrow one…and not many would travel it. (Matt. 7:13-14). Guess what Isaiah referred to it as? Go look for yourself…it’s 35:8-9. See you tomorrow?