Continuing in Holiness
One of the great issues with the holiness movement that my denomination, the Church of the Nazarene, was at the centre of, was that they so emphasized this moment of consecration and receiving God’s cleansing that they sometimes forgot to emphasize the daily practice of killing sin and walking in love.
Lewis Corlett wrote this: “The Christian must continually make choices in daily life to keep his life in harmony with all that God has done in him. Good character is built by a process of good choices. Holiness in the heart and life of a believer is maintained and increased by a process of choices in harmony with God’s will and purpose.”[i]
[i] Corlett, L. 1949. Holiness for Practical Living. Kansas: Beacon Hill Publishing
Striving for Holiness and Love
If you’ve received His cleansing and been filled with the Spirit as you’ve consecrated your life to Him, you need to continue in it EVERY DAY.
Even Paul, in Philippians 3, spoke about pressing on towards the perfection he was called to. He said “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:12–14 NLT)
Are our lives a ‘pressing on to perfection’?
God called us to be holy – to be filled with love and free from sin. Of course, we will never reach the perfection that only God has. Of course, we will still make mistakes, and miscalculations. But we can be holy, by loving like He loved, and refraining from the sin that dishonours Him.
Living Like Jesus Every Day
Are our lives filled with love, in everything we do? Are our lives free from sin’s selfishness and pride?
Press on every day for this, reader! Arrange your life in such a way that acts of love for God and others are everything to you. Arrange your life to avoid sin fiercely.
You’re CALLED to it.
You’re CLEANSED from the past.
You’re CONSECRATED and thus filled with the power to do it.
Now press on. CONTINUE every day to live like Jesus lived.
