Holy As He IS Holy

“For I am the Lord your God.  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy as a I am holy…For I am the Lord that brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy as I am holy (Leviticus 11:44,45).”  These were the words left ringing in the ears of the Israelites as Moses concludes the portion of the law dealing with clean and unclean animals.  God was extremely particular about what His people could partake of and what they should avoid.  While these laws may seem burdensome and arbitrary to Christians in the 21^st century, the fact is this is what God commanded. 

                In the late 1^st century AD, the apostle Peter wrote to disciples who were scattered throughout the world, living as aliens, as those who don’t belong in this world.  His audience was surrounded by pagans and Jews, they were encountering various trials, and it seems that holiness was becoming more difficult by the day.  So Peter offered this advice, “Therefore prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  As obedient children, do not conform to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior, because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ (1 Peter 1:13-16)”

                Peter, like Moses before him, challenges and commands his audience to model themselves after the holiness of the Father.  God is holy; therefore, as His children and followers, we should strive to be holy as well.  To be holy means to be set apart or exalted because of goodness or righteousness.  Peter prescribes two things the Christian must do in order to pursue the holiness o God. 

First, he demands that we prepare our minds for action by 1) being sober and alert, and 2) fixing our hope on the grace of eternal redemption.   Sobriety is essential for a mind prepared for action.  If we are to be ready to make quick decisions of faith and conscience, we must be aware of our surroundings so that the devil cannot take us by surprise.  When we are tempted, we should be able to see that temptation as sin, and immediately have a godly response.  This constant state of being on guard can become tiresome, though.  Therefore Peter reminds us to keep our eyes on the prize; that is, to fix our hope completely on the hope of the resurrection.  That is our motivation.  That is what will reenergize us in times of weakness – the hope of eternity with our Lord.

                Second, the apostle demands obedience.  But this obedience is not simply checklist obedience.  What Peter demands here is total conformity to the will of the Father.  He qualifies this obedience as not being conformed to the fleshly lusts that we had while we were separate from Christ, dead in our sins.  We must leave that life behind us, nailed to the cross and buried with our Lord.  We must push on to bigger and more excellent things.  We must push on to holiness.  Like God is holy, we must be holy in all our actions and behavior; constantly striving to be more like Him every day. 

                He is the Lord that brought us up from the bondage of sin, to be our God; thus we shall be holy for He is holy. 

Do You Really Want To Be A Part Of A First Century Church?

Normally when a question like this is asked, the person asking is trying to make a point about the heart of the audience.  Like, "Do you want this, or are you just saying you do?"  Not me, not today.  I've asked it like that before.  I've questioned people's motives before.  I've asked people if they want to follow the Bible or just their desires.  We are familiar with that.  But I'm going to put a new spin on this one today.  Let me ask it this way, "Is the church we see in the first century really what we should be using as our template for the church?"

Now that you all think I'm crazy, let me add to chaos.  I think the first century church is put on an undue pedestal.  For instance, we were in worship the other day and a word was being said before taking up the collection.  The man said, "We do this because we see that the church in the first century did it, in Corinth."

So???

The church in Corinth did a lot of things.  Most of which Paul came down on them pretty hard for.  So why are we suddenly using the most liberal church in scripture as our standard?

You wanna see the church of the first century?  Liberal [and I don't just mean financially, I mean morally] (Corinth), Bigoted (Rome), Back sliding/giving up (Hebrews), adopting other creeds and traditions (Galatia), self-centered (Ephesus), proud (Laodicea), etc.  This is a pretty bleak picture.  These churches are just as bad off, or worse, than many today.

Here is my point.  The church, while established by God, is made up of human beings, fallible and weak.  We should never, ever, ever use any group of people as our authority.  Do I think the church in Corinth was right in giving money?  Absolutely.  Do I think that their doing it makes it the reason we give money?  Nope. 

Instead of saying we want to be like the first century church, or even "The churches we see in the New Testament, I believe we should be in churches that follow the New Testament, the Word of God.  Our authority comes from word of God, not people that came before us that got close.

As a side note, this should especially be our point of view when studying "Restoration History".  Campbell, Stone, Lipscomb, etc were good men, but they were not apostles, or prophets or the second coming.  They were men.  They did a lot of good.  Follow their spirit.  Be inspired by their mission.  But don't look to the 1850's like Jesus came back and set the church up right again and use them as authority.  The word of God and it alone is our authority.

He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13

"How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul,

Having sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

and my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"

And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.

But I have trusted in Your loving kindness;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

Because He has dealt bountifully with me."

        We don’t often pray like this.  David is begging God to hear him, as if God has been ignoring him for quite some time.  But haven’t we all felt like this before at some point or another?  Like Satan just won’t cut us any slack? And no matter how often we pray, or how fervently we beg God there just seems to be no end in sight?  We definitely have those bad days…or even those bad weeks.  But check out what David says here in Psalm 13.

        First – “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”  Ok, that is a cry of desperation if I’ve ever heard one.  David seems to be in some serious trouble here but feels like God has not giving him the time of day.  But more over, look how he ends this first stanza, “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day?  How long will my enemies be exalted over me?” Not only does David feel like God is ignoring him, he sees the enemy gaining a foot hold.  His enemy has the advantage and defeat seems like it is inevitable.

        Second – David recognizes his own weakness and lack of ability to personally fight off the enemy.  He needs God or he will die.  Plain and simple.  And if he dies like this, he says, the enemy will win and mock him and his faith.  And this just doesn’t work for David.

         Third – and here is the cool part.  What is David’s solution to God’s “silence”?  Praise Him!  That’s right.  God does seemingly nothing and He still gets the attention and respect of David.  Why is that?  It seems so foreign to us.  We ask “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  We may ask. “Why do good things happen to bad people?”  Whatever our circumstance is, it is easy to blame God for our problems and for our enemy’s success.  But David has a totally different perspective.  David says, “I will sing to the Lord, because He has bountifully with me.”  What a great thought!  Allow me to paraphrase this, “I will praise the name of God, and I will trust in His grace. Not because I see Him working right now, but because I have seen Him work in the past, and I trust Him to work it all out for good in His own time.  I am alive.  He has gotten me this far and its more than I deserve as it is.  Blessed be the Lord!”

        

         We have failed on our own again and again.  We know that it is only through God that we can even begin true change, but temptation is yet again rearing its ugly head, and we have to trust that God will deliver us in His way and in His time.  It is up to us to trust Him, and praise His name for the blessings He has already given us.