The Holy Command
By Michael
K. Farrar, O.D.
© January
12, 2005
Picture
yourself standing before Jesus waiting for Him to bless you with some words of
instruction. You are anxious about what He has to say to you for nothing ever
proceeds from His mouth that is not full of truth and wisdom. You love Him with
all your heart and you would love to carry out any task or command He would ask
you to complete. He begins to speak.
“Prepare your mind for action; be self-controlled; set your
hope fully on the grace to be given you when I am revealed. As an obedient
child, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
He pauses for
a moment as if to let His words sink into your heart, mind and soul. You ponder
these sentences and your mind stands alert to follow anything Jesus might
instruct you. You know your salvation rests in the sacrifice Jesus has made for
you and the grace provided by your Heavenly Father. You think of the words He
has just spoken, “as an obedient child, do not conform to the evil desires
you had when you lived in ignorance.” You think back to your old life
without Christ. You would have bowed your head in shame, but you know this past
life is gone, forgiven, destroyed. You have new life in Christ and you hold
your head high knowing your past sins are gone, erased and washed away. You
desire wholeheartedly to be an obedient child of your King.
Your thoughts
are drawn back to the face of Jesus. He is going to add to His previous
commands and instructions. What does He wish you to do? He speaks.
“But just as I who called you am holy,
so be holy in all you do; for it is written:
‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”
You stand
frozen. He can’t be serious. How can you be holy? Yes you are a new person in
Christ, but you know what wars within you. You know while past sins are
forgiven, new sins very likely wait for you in the future. You know the daily
struggle you face as you attempt to obey God’s Word. How can you accomplish
this impossible task?
Jesus never
said these words as far as I know, but they are recorded in 1 Peter 1:13-16.
They are God speaking through the Apostle Peter as he writes the Word of God.
It doesn’t matter whether Jesus said these words or not because God said them
in His Word. They are holy instruction and carry the command of authority of
our majestic Heavenly Father. We ARE CALLED TO, “Be Holy because God is
Holy.”
Why does God
give us this command? There are numerous reasons, but the prime one is that He
desires to fellowship with us. Our position before God is transformed when we
accept Christ as Savior. We are Holy in the eyes of God when we become a
Christian because we stand in a new position, forgiven by the blood of Jesus
Christ. Our position is one of holiness, but our condition has yet to be
transformed. We see in scripture that salvation comes from God, Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We do not work for our salvation and our deeds do not grant us salvation,
otherwise we could boast that we obtained salvation by our actions. But, there
are numerous verses that instruct us that the way we live as Christians is of
huge concern to our Heavenly Father. Consider the following portions of
scripture.
Hebrews
12:14
“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be
holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Romans 6:12-14
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body
so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin,
as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who
have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him
as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you
are not under law, but under grace.”
2
Corinthians 7:1
“Since we
have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that
contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
Ephesians
4:22-24
“You were
taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of
your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness.”
These verses
illustrate that while we are acceptable in the sight of God because of the
blood of Christ, we are still a work in progress. This work in progress is
called sanctification and is in actuality the pursuit of holiness. It is the
process by which our position and condition become one. It is a process by
which we cooperate with God to allow Him to conform us to the image of Christ
(Romans 8:29). Another verse or two will explain
Philippians
1:5-6
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in
you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians
2:12-13
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not
only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and
to act according to his good purpose.”
In the above verse we see the holy
relationship we have with God in this process. We are told in this letter
written by Paul to the church at Philippi that “we work out our salvation”
and we are also told “God works in us according to His good purpose.”
Possibly you
are confused. If salvation is a free gift from God why do we have to work at
all? The fact is salvation is a free gift and a holy position before God is
granted to us, but the condition of our life can change with our behavior. If
we don’t work at allowing the Spirit to direct our life as Christians and
submit to the instruction of God’s Word we will sin. We can and do commit sin
even after we have accepted Christ as our Savior. The following verse speaks of
this.
1 John
1:8-10
“If we
claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him
out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
So we can sin
during our new life in Christ, but we don’t have to accept Christ again to save
us from these sins, for His death paid the penalty for our sins, past, present
and future. But we do need to ask for forgiveness for these sins so that our
relationship with God is restored. When we sin as Christians we are no longer
Holy and cannot fellowship with God. We have tainted our relationship with Him
and need to be reunited with Him. We don’t lose our salvation or the Holy
Spirit when we sin as Christians, but we grieve His Spirit when we sin against
God. Paul discusses this struggle in our relationship with God and with the
command to be Holy in Romans 7:14-20. He shares how the sin in our flesh
battles with the Spirit we have as a child of God and the new creature we are
in Christ.
Paul knew
only too well what happens in the life of a Christian as they seek to live the
holy life. He knew that before a person accepts Christ as their Savior they
were slaves to sin. He knew that when a person becomes a Christian they are no
longer a slave to sin, but a slave to God. He addresses this in Romans 6:19-23
where he says, “I put this in human terms because you are weak in your
natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to
impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to
righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free
from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from
the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that
you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you
reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul is
stating here under the direction of the Holy Spirit that our former life of sin
was a life of no choice. Our only option was to serve sin. In our new life He
is saying our choice is one of serving our Heavenly Father by being a slave to
righteousness and holy living. But, Paul also knows that we can choose to
return to our former way of life and serve sin if we ignore God’s Word and
promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Paul goes
further than warnings and instructions when he writes under the power of the
Holy Spirit in Hebrews 12:10-11, “Our fathers disciplined us for a little
while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may
share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those
who have been trained by it.”
Here Paul
tells us that God will not leave us in a state of sin as a child of God. He
will discipline us for our own good to draw us out of the sin we have chosen.
Just as a father will discipline his children when they disobey, our Heavenly Father
will step in and discipline us when we disobey His Word. The reason He does
this is because He desires us to be Holy so He can remain in fellowship with
us. Believe it or not God passionately seeks to love and fellowship with us
even when we sin against Him. He will do anything possible to pull us back into
a life pleasing to Him.
Just as a
father is concerned over how his children act, our Heavenly Father is concerned
with how we behave. God has told us what we must do in His Word and has given
us His Spirit to provide the guidance and power to accomplish it. Our task is
to behave according to the new life we have in Christ and live a Holy life in
the power of the Spirit.
There is
another command that we are given that fuels the ability to “be holy as God is
holy.” It is found in Matthew 22:37-38 where it says, “‘Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is
the first and greatest commandment.”
If we are truthfully grateful for the gift of salvation, we will love
the Lord with all our heart mind and soul. This is what motivates a desire to
“be holy as our God is holy.” Our love for God also stimulates us to listen to
the Spirit so we have the power to “be holy as our God is holy.” Our love for the
Lord will also help us absorb God’s Word so we know what it means to “be holy
as our God is holy.” Loving God with all our heart, mind and soul is a command
we are to obey. If we seek to obey this commandment, the command of living a
holy life will follow.
We are given
a hint that while Jesus didn’t say the words in 1 Peter 1:13-16 that I began
this homily with, He did say some similar words to an adulterous woman during
His ministry on earth. In John 8:11 we find Jesus granting forgiveness to this
woman and instructing her to “be holy for I am holy” when He says, “Go now
and leave your life of sin.” He was telling her that now that she was
forgiven, she should leave her past life of sin and begin a new life of holy
living in a relationship with the Heavenly Father.
So we have
learned that God commands and expects us to live a Holy life. We have learned
that He knows that we will sin during our new life. We are aware that He
provides a way of restoring our relationship with Him when we sin by hearing our
confessions of our sinful actions and forgiving us. We have also learned that
God will discipline us if it comes to that if we are disobedient children and
grieve His Spirit by sinning. We know He has commanded us to love him with our
heart, mind and soul so that we can live a holy life. We may be amazed and
possibly surprised, but we are also grateful that He loves us so much that He
will do anything He can do to retain a vibrant holy fellowship with us.
I would
encourage you to live in the Spirit and walk in the light by avoiding those
obvious and subtle sins that seem to creep into your life. They may be past
practices that you did in your life before Christ, or they may be new
temptations the world, the flesh and the devil have devised to pull you away
from God. Whatever they are or wherever they come from, live your life with the
power of the Spirit, according to the Word and conformed to the image of Christ
your Lord and Master. “Be Holy as God is Holy.”