Events around us show us that the Lord’s coming is very near and the Bible says that his coming will be like a thief in the night. When we hear and see all the indications of His coming, the Lord wants us to focus our attention to a thing said in 2 Peter 3:11. “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?” In the MSG version it says, “Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life?” The Bible tells us that all things we see now are temporary and it is all reserved for the fire. We need to be spiritually alert in these days. From verses 9-13 we read about about the holiness needed from us. In 1 John 3:2, 3 we read, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” The Holy Spirit speaks to us here how essential it is to live a holy life in these last days. The Holy Spirit stresses that we need to have an increasing holiness in our lives. In Leviticus 20:26, the Lord says, “Be holy as I am holy” and “I have set you apart to be mine”. God has set us apart from this crooked generation to be His and to be holy.
We see in the old covenant that the emphasis was on outward holiness but Jesus emphasized on internal holiness. In Mathew 23:25-26 we see how Jesus tells the Pharisees of their lack of internal holiness. Jesus said that at first the internal life had to be holy first. In 1 Peter 1:14-16, Peter encourages us to be holy just as the Lord is holy. In this ungodly world, God wants us to live a holy life. Leonard Reverend Hill once said, “The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out an unholy world and keep him holy in this unholy world.” God has chosen us before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1-14) . One day when we see him we shall be like him – this is our ambition. God wants us to be holy and blameless before Him in love.
In 2 Peter 3:13,14 we read that we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, but if we want this we need to be diligent to be spotless and blameless. In 2 Corinthians 7:1 Paul encourages us to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord by cleansing ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. In Galatians 5:19-21 we read the deeds of the flesh. In order to be holy, we need to cleanse ourselves from all these deeds. In Revelations 22:11 we read, “ Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” God wants us to live a life of increasing holiness.
When we are aware of the nature of our sin and our unchristlike nature in our life, if it leads us to repentance; we are on the path to holiness. If we are not lead to repentance, we need to check ourselves. Jesus, when on this earth, was very concerned about the holiness of the temple. Likewise he wants us to keep the church and our personal life holy and pure. In John 2:13-17 we read of Jesus cleansing the temple. Jesus had zeal to keep the temple pure. As a church and as an individual we need to have this zeal to keep ourselves holy as we are the holy temple of God ( 1Cor . 3-17). In Ephesians 5:27 we read, “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” At the Lord’s coming we need to be without spot or wrinkle. In 2 Corinthians 11:2,3 we see Paul’s desire to present the church as a pure virgin. We shouldn’t be led astray from the purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ. Let us take these words seriously and keep a high standard of holiness in our lives.May God bless all of us.
