Holiness?
As I read Hebrews 12:14 this morning, I at first zeroed in on the whole “peace with everyone” part because it is the topic for the week – loving your enemies.
Then the second part of the verse caught my eye:
Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.
Pursue consecration and holiness. Sanctification. Separation. Holy lives. Clean lives. Different translations use different words, but they all point to the same thing – living a life that is set apart and pleasing to God. Living a life that in as much as you can is without sin.
This, I think, is a key to the christian walk.
We are called to be in this world, but not of this world. We are called to be set apart, to look different in the way that we act and react in this world.
This leads to a lot of discussion about those gray areas of life. Things like watching movies and drinking alcohol, listening to secular music and wearing pants vs. dresses. Areas that have divided the Church and sullied the Bride of Christ in the eyes of the world.
I’m not going to address those areas, simply because I don’t have God’s answers to them. I believe that God will convict each person in those areas as He sees fit, and it’s not my place to force my brothers and sisters to what God has convicted me of.
It goes back to that whole “strive to live in peace” part of the verse. Don’t create conflict where there doesn’t need to be any.
But what does it look like to be set apart? To pursue holiness?
Personally I understand it to live my life in such a way that I am pursuing God above all else. That I am sensitive to the promptings of The Spirit in my life, and I am seeking to live a life that gives glory and honor to the Almighty God… and not to me.
and it is hard.
But if we do not seek God, if we don’t pursue a life that is set apart to Him, Hebrews 12:14 tells us that we will never see Him. It doesn’t matter what translation you look it up in, the bible is pretty clear on that point.
To see God, we must pursue Him.
And that means that our lives are to be lived with an eternal perspective. That we continuously place God on the throne of our hearts (even though we want to be there ourselves) and seek to serve Him in all things.
ALL things.
Come to think of it, isn’t that what worship is? Every breath we take, every thing we do is done to give God the glory. Is done in worship of Him.
We are set apart for Him. We were created for Him. We need to worship Him… with all that we are.
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