Holiness
Defining Holiness – Part IV
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1:13-25
Key Verse: Hebrews 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
The closing sentence in yesterday’s devotional was about our “intentions”. This word is critical to understand holiness.
I do not believe I can get through a day without a lapse in my Christlike performance. However, I do believe I get through most days without intentionally being less than Christlike.
Please slow down and understand this theology. We are certainly capable of being intentionally un-Christlike. But once the Holy Spirit lives within us, Christ-followers are usually not intentionally un-Christlike.
For example, if I could follow most sincere Christ-followers during a given day, I could undoubtedly see an un-Christlike action. However, if I could ask them at that moment: “Did you mean to be that way; did you intend to be un-Christlike?”
Most of the time the answer would be: “no, I didn’t intent to come across that way” or “I didn’t realize I came across that way”.
If a Christ-follower realizes that they acted un-Christlike, they feel horrible and ask for forgiveness. God judges intentions accordingly.
Our theology says that Christ-followers do come up short of perfection, but God sees them as holy when they did not have unholy intentions.
We judge our kids in a similar way. When a toddler comes up short but has good intent, we do not (or should not) hold it against them because they are still learning and growing.
God sees His children fail but knows when there was no evil intent. God knows when we are holy in our intent but fail in our performance because we still need to learn and grow.
This is important to understand the phrase: be holy as your heavenly Father is holy (1 Peter 1:15). The Bible is true, and we can trust it. If the Bible tells us to be something or do something, we are capable to be it or do it. Therefore, yes, we can be holy like our Heavenly Father because we can live without evil intentions.
Please understand that if we unintentionally hurt someone’s feelings, we still want to ask them to forgive us, even though God knows we did not intend to hurt.
I am so glad that Christ in us makes us strong enough to not have evil intentions but has mercy on us when we do sin.
Father, I give You full permission to work in me to make me holy. Grant me strength to grow in the areas of my weakness. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.