Our Power – God’s Love For us
We're called to be holy. That's clear in the Bible. God alone is holy, holy, holy. But God says to us, be holy as I am holy, and so we can.
And it's got to mean more than following the rules, as we've seen so far this week. Judy Huffman in her article, Practical Holiness, says that when she was growing up, holiness was based on fear. She was always afraid of what should she be doing, what shouldn't she be doing.
Holiness Through Love
And she said, this is strong contrast to the relational holiness that the Bible seems to describe. Being holy is more than doing external things, but it's about love. I wonder if we remember this! I wonder if we remember that it's God's love that enables us to be holy? So often we think of God more as a kind of a taskmaster, trying to push us into directions and force us into different ways of life.
Do you remember that we are called to be holy and blameless because God loves us? Holiness is not God being angry at our sin, and so we fearfully try to do what's right, so as not to anger him. Holiness, instead, is recognizing that God loves us for who we are, and out of that, freely doing good.
If you're trying to live a holy life out of fear and out of obligation, you may be successful at following the rules, but you're not going to be holy because true holiness is based on love.
Love Drives Holiness
Friends, rest in God's love today, would you? Rest in the fact that God loves you and cares for you and lavished his pleasure on you.
And then because of that, because of his love, go and gladly honor him in the way you live your life. Huffman says “God's love is the power that drives relational holiness.” If you know you're loved by him, you will love others with a holy and wonderful love, and isn't that the goal of our everyday life as Christians?
