Holiness
Defining Holiness – Part VI
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.
In today’s Scripture Reading, we see the Apostle Peter’s God-inspired words:
So, you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. (1 Peter 1:14)
Since Peter warns us “not to slip back into our old ways”, that means it is possible for us to do so. Peter wants Christ-followers to fight the tendency of going backwards and instead move forward with Jesus.
We have been defining what the Bible means by the term “holiness”. We learned in yesterday’s devotional that anger can an avenue of going backwards in our faith and that we want to cleanse ourselves of any resulting sinful behavior so that outwardly we can be more holy.
This is true not because it is wrong to be angry but because during our anger it is easy to sin. We must learn to deal with our anger properly and not say or do anything during our anger that would be sinful. A first step is for all of us to acknowledge how easy it is to sin in our anger. When we get angry, we must quickly remind ourselves to be careful.
I have worked with a lot of married couples who are constantly dealing with anger toward each other. I have found that they typically say terrible things to each other, and even separate from each other during their angry moments.
They do love each other, and it is not long until they make up and get back together. Their problem is not love; it is anger. They need to learn how to deal with those moments when they want so badly to hurt one another because of their anger. When they learn slow their reactions during their anger, they begin to progress in their maturity.
The Apostle James writes directly to this point:
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. (James 1:19-20)
Tomorrow’s devotional details the results of this first step and shows how this might be the only step most people need to handle their anger.
For today, memorize the key points of this verse and evaluate yourself:
- Be quick to listen – are you?
- Be slow to speak – does that happen in your conversations?
- Be slow to anger – if we practice the first two, this one happens easier.
Father, please help me to learn to deal with my anger. Guide my thoughts that I might not sin against You and hurt others with my anger. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.