It’s been a wonderful week here. Not only because we are enjoying 70-degree weather in the middle of February but also because Bobby has recovered from his bout with the flu. This week we’ve celebrated his 26th birthday, our good friend [1] Missy’s birthday and maybe even that of our own baby who is due in less than a week now!

I’ve been very encouraged by a small group of high school girls who have been gathering at our place for one hour every Tuesday night to get serious about holiness. Usually when people hear the word holiness they coil up thinking that is not something they exactly want to go out of their way to talk about. Someone once told me of holiness, “I’m a Christian and all, but that is way to heavy for me.” In his Sunday morning teaching, Bobby once mentioned Hebrews 12:14 which calls us to pursue holiness “without which no one will see God.” It has been a great blessing to have just a few girls step forward in their desire to seek after God in this way. Each week we sit around the dining room table or in the living room with our Bibles and talk and pray to this end. I have learned so much from the mutual discussion and the perspectives that are offered and prayers shared.

At first this just seemed like one little verse to me and read pretty self explained I thought. But as we dissected it, it went from being a little postage stamp picture of a verse to a huge panoramic window of a picture of this call to holiness. I’m excited to write about the four things that really stood out to us from this verse.

Promises- “Therefore, having these promises, beloved…” Paul is writing to believers of the promises God has made. Looking at the previous chapter we see some of these promises. In 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 God promises to dwell with us, be our God, to receive us and to be a Father to us. Everyone shared some of the many other promises God has given to us as His children. And we noted that these promises are our motivation toward holiness. Because we have these promises, we ought to do what the Lord commands of us. God promises to never leave or forsake us (Josh. 1:5), renew mercy to us each day (Lam. 3:22-23), forgive our sins (1 John 1:9), provides a way out of temptation (1 Cor. 10:13), all we need in His Word (2 Pet. 3:1).

Cleanse- “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit…” We must seek to be pure in our lives, taking out all sin. We found it pretty interesting that holiness is not just a matter of our souls–cleansing our thoughts, hearts, minds and desires. But purity must come from our spirit to our bodies as well as they are temples of the Holy Spirit Himself (1 Cor. 6:19). We cannot allow our bodies to be lazy and undisciplined while training our minds and hearts to be under Christ, it just doesn’t make sense.

I remember hearing a speaker in chapel at the Master’s College talk about holiness. He said that Christians permit far too much sin in their lives that we compromise on “small” things and end up with a weak perspective on sin and no drive for holiness. He had one of those huge bottles of purified water for office water dispensers. He took a trash bag and from it pulled just tiny drop of horse or cow manure and dropped it into the bottle. He shook it some and then asked, “Is it pure?” His point has stuck with me because I know I do that in my life in terms of being pure from sin. Seeing water contaminated with manure is disgusting and makes me shudder, but allowing myself to compromise with “small” sins or laziness in my body doesn’t seem to get the same response. I want to see my life become more and more purified like the bottle of water, free from anything that contaminates or corrupts.

Perfecting Holiness- When we got to this part of the verse I reminded them that weeks ago we had defined holiness as perfection. How can you perfect perfection? One of the girls said it so well in that we are never there, in this life we cannot arrive at holiness. To perfect holiness means that we must keep faithfully striving after our calling all the way to the end of our lives. Only at the end of our lives or when Jesus returns will we be made whole and perfectly like Him.

Fear of God- The deep reverence and respect that we must have for God grows as we see how small and sinful we are in light or how amazingly holy He is. The more I see this reality, the more I want to please Him, to be made pure before Him. In defining “fear of God” we looked up Proverbs 8:13 which says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” This brought us full circle in our understanding of holiness in this verse because to be holy is to be free of sin.

God’s promises enable and motivate us to keep seeking His glory in our lives. We need to be diligent to flee from sin and anything that contaminates our love for Him. One of God’s promises to His children that I find very motivating in my walk with Him is that He did not save me and then abandon me to be sanctified on my own. He has done the work of salvation in my life and will continue to work His will in my growth toward holiness.