INTRODUCTION
I immediately think of a man by the name of Joseph who said, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). Joseph loved God too much to have an illicit relationship with Potiphar’s wife. Such a relationship would have been outside of the boundaries of God’s will that He established in the very beginning when He fashioned that one woman for that one man (see Gen. 2:24). Such a relationship would have been outside the boundaries of that which is pure. Or, we could say, that conduct would have been outside the boundaries of who God is. Our character, our ethics, who we are to be, naturally flows from the very nature of God.
CALLED TO BE HOLY
In preparing for this lesson I was impressed with how often the subject of purity or holiness was found within the context of our calling as God’s children. Notice just a couple examples of this in the following passages:
When you log into the site, you shall find all the details you need to know. cialis pills free http://www.devensec.com/images/bose-slides/bose-3.html Sildenafil citrate cheap viagra price is one of the major ingredients, used in the Kamagra. Having a healthy lifestyle is the key devensec.com buy viagra without prescriptions of happy, blessed and delightful relationship. LBP one of the most prevalent reason for your reduction concerning interest through families vibrant besides 49 cheapest cialis in canada yo. 1 Peter 1:15 – “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” God has called us as His children, through His Word (1 Thess. 2:12-13), to be holy, or to be like Him. Please also note what they (or, we) are to be holy in “all” of our conduct! There is no aspect of our life that we can separate from the purity or holiness that God calls us to.
1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are chosen by God. What are we chosen by God to be? A holy nation. A holy nation is made up of holy individuals. A quick side-note here… what a responsibility we have in contributing to the holiness of the Lord’s body! We don’t want to be a dark spot in the body of our Lord! As Peter says at the end of the passage… Our God has “called us out of darkness into his marvelous light!” Darkness is where we came from! By God’s grace we have been delivered from our sin to walk in His marvelous light! Please understand this… God wanted and still wants something far better for us than living in the darkness of sin!
It is also very important to understand that our calling to holiness and purity goes beyond keeping ourselves free from immoral conduct, though that is certainly involved. We are not just called out of darkness, but we are called into His marvelous light. We are called to “walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). We are called to live out righteousness in our lives. We are not holy just because we sit down in our recliner and don’t commit sin! That would be a very incomplete understanding of holiness. Holiness involves being set apart by God and for God. Christians have been raised not to be “enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:7), but to present ourselves “to God… as instruments for righteousness” (Rom. 6:13). Maybe we sometimes lose battles with purity and holiness because we are negligent offensively! It may sound a bit trite but it is still true that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
Daren Schroeder
