Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Holiness
There is a lot in this passage and it would be possible to deliver a whole sermon on each phrase. I won’t attempt to do that!
Firstly, Paul tells us to clothe ourselves in Jesus’ characteristics. We should “…put on tender mercies, kindness, meekness, longsuffering,” and bear with one another. As with 1 Corinthians 13, he emphasises that “above all these things”we should put on love.
These things do not normally come about on their own. I didn’t wake up this morning full of tender mercies with all my actions miraculously changed. Paul makes clear that it is our decision and action to put on these things. By doing this, we are also going to have to put down other things: anger, pride, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, anxiety etc. We choose to stop acting and speaking from self, and decide to act and speak out of love for each other. And we have to decide that every day, sometimes every minute. John puts it another way in one of his letters:“My children, let us love not merely in theory or in words – let us love in sincerity and in practice!” 1 John 3: 18 (The New Testament in Modern English, J.B.Philips)
Secondly, Paul expects us to forgive:“…forgiving one another: even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do”. This is non-negotiable. No excuses. No exceptions.Paul doesn’t make allowances for us:there is no leeway for us to nurse our grudge because what she did was really awful, or because he hasn’t said sorry yet, or because I don’t feel like forgiving him yet.
After teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus stated very clearly:“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matt 6:14-15
This is not God being mean;it is part of His great mercy. If God gave us leeway with this, then we could be trapped forever by unforgiveness. The person who has hurt us may never say - or be - sorry, they may never even realise that they have hurt us, or they might already be dead and beyond repenting the offense. We may never feel like forgiving them. In fact, we might enjoy holding on to our wounded feelings and our victimhood! God doesn’t give us that option.If we obey Him, forgiving others saves us from a very heavy burden of bitterness and anger.
Thirdly, we are to “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts”. Most of the time, God does not hand us peace like a warm, fluffy blanket as if we were children. In some circumstances, God may give a strong sense of His peace but this verse suggests that this is the exception rather than the norm.Like with forgiveness, Paul makes it clear that this is our choice again: we can choose to allow God’s peace rule in our hearts, or we can choose to be distracted by our busyness or focused on our fears. Sometimes we have to choose to trustGod over and over again because we’ve got caught on the hamster wheel of anxiety.
Fourthly, we should“let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly in all wisdom as [we] teach and admonish one another…”.Paul’s readers were in many ways in a weaker position than us. They had Paul’s letter and teaching and access to the Old Testament, butthey did not have the full Bible at that point. We are very blessed to have the full canon of Scripture available to us and to be able to buy Bibles freely and cheaply. However, just having a Bible on the shelf or dusting it off on Sundays is not going to make any difference to us. If we’re not reading the Bible and getting it into our memories and our hearts, how else is it going to get there? Paul makes it clear that this is each believer’s responsibility.
When we have put Scripture inside us, then we will be in a good position to teach and admonish each other. This is not an excuse for criticism or pointing out each other’s specks. It is an out-pouring of love and wisdom coming from God through us, not from our human wisdom. James describes it as follows:[SLIDE] “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17
We can sometimes be afraid to teach or warn each other because we’re afraid of getting it wrong. We are right to be cautious but we should also not let fear prevent us from speaking if it is right. Fear can sometimes be selfish: if I don’t speak because I fear looking silly, I could prevent someone being blessed by God. If I don’t speak because I fear someone will be angry with me, then I could delay that person repenting and turning back to God. If we are seeking God and speak genuinely through His love, then it will be a means to stir each other up to better things.
Fifthly, Paul says that “…whatever you do in word and deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father...”. Whether you are preaching or welcoming or clearing the drains, whether you are at work, home, or out and about, what we do or say reflects on our Lord. We must be careful to avoid anything that would dishonour His name.
We should not be doing these things grudgingly or reluctantly. We should always hold in our minds what God has done for us and be thankful. As with all these things, the feeling of being thankful and the act of giving thanks are not always going to happen spontaneously. In human terms, the prophet Jeremiah had a bit of a rubbish life and he had genuine reason for grumbling. Yet, he stopped himself and wrote these words in Lamentations:[SLIDE]“I remember my affliction and my wandering,The bitterness and the gall.I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.Yet this I call to mindand therefore I have hope:Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,for his compassions never fail.They are new every morning;great is your faithfulness.”Lamentations 3:19-27
When life is hard or merely humdrum, we have to exercise willpower to remember and give thanks. As we do this more and more, it will become a new habit.
Why should we do this?Paul gives us four reasons:
We are the “elect of God”. God chose us and gave us this status through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Only He could do this. Our appropriate response is gratitude and wanting to please Him.
We are “holy”, consecrated and set apart for God. Because of this, we should be constantly on guard to rid ourselves of sin. If we believe that God’s Spirit lives in us, then we should be eager to make sure there is nothing displeasing to Him within us.
God has saved us and that is the joy of His grace, but if nothing in our behaviour changes after we have accepted Him then we are treating His sacrifice with contempt. Obeying God demonstrates our true repentance. [SLIDE] Simon Ponsonby says: “Good deeds are not a substitute for repentance – they don’t of themselves merit forgiveness – but true repentance is demonstrated by true change, manifested in good works.”In Acts 26:20, Paul preached to the Gentiles that they should “repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.”
We are “beloved”: we are God’s children, dearly loved and precious to Him. We can believe that whether it feels like it or not, because God says it is true and because His actions demonstrate it. If we believe that, and hold on to Him as our security, we will be able to love others more fully. His love will flow through us as we care for each other.
We are “one body” so what we say and do affects each other. In addition to this, how we treat each other affects the world. If we obey God, pursuing unity within the fellowship and our own personal sanctification,people outside will see that we are different. Some will be drawn to Jesus, others will be repelled. This is seen very clearly in Acts 2:42-47 when the believers’ behaviour caused them to enjoy the favour of all the people. [Fabious’ story]
Paul and other writers state clearly that such obedience is the way to make our faith effective and fruitful.In the letter to Titus, Paul says:“…be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.” (Titus 3: 3-8) Peter also exhorts believers strongly about these very things:
[SLIDE]“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you for being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But if anyone does not have them, he is short-sighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”2 Peter 1:5-11
This is a big task. Can we manage it?Yes! Paul is not talking about a utopian ideal, but about a way of life which he expects all believers to follow in God’s strength, not our own. In his letter to the Philippians, he says: [SLIDE] “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” [my italics]
Every follower of Jesus should take up his cross daily and obey, maybe not perfectly but with a sincere and humble heart seeking to serve and reflect God. It requires us to choose to die to self every day and self does not usually go quietly, so we will have to put in some effort!
Kevin DeYoung, in his book The Hole in our Holiness says:“Among conservative Christians there is sometimes the mistake notion that if we are truly gospel-centred, we won’t talk about rules or imperatives or moral exertion….We’re scared of words like diligence, effort, and duty….Then there’s the reality that holiness is plain hard work, and we’re often lazy. We like our sins and dying to them is painful. Almost everything is easier than growing in godliness.”
I’ve identified three dangers and three choices related to this.
Firstly, there’s a danger that we will feel overwhelmed by the scale of the task and give up or not even try. We have to choose to rely on God every moment of every day and allow Him to work in us. He knows what He wants to deal with in us and how. He also knows what we can bear and will not expect us to deal with everything at once.
Secondly, there are dangers in comparison and procrastination: we compare our sins with the big ones and think they’re not so bad or that we’ll deal with it another time. We need to choose to keep short accountswith God, dealing with sin promptly then moving on again with Him.
Thirdly, there’s the danger of passivity: we can sit and pray for God to change us and then carry on as before, waiting for God to zap us. Or we lean on others who we deem to be more holy or more in touch with God, hoping that the holiness will rub off on us without us having to make an effort. We have to take action to pursue holiness ourselves and persevere even when it hurts.
Obeying God may hurt our pride as He requires us to humble ourselves. We may have to rid ourselves of self-righteousness or self-pity. We may have to step out of our comfort zone in order to serve others. Or give up our time, money or energy for God’s purpose rather than using them on ourselves.We will have to persevere to overcome bad habits and patterns of thought, speech or behaviour. Some of these may feel so much a part of us that breaking the pattern may feel like breaking part of ourselves. But if it is in the way between us and God then we will have to keep working on it, picking ourselves up every time we fail and going back to God to repent and start again.
This can seem overwhelming. However, it is the most important work that we will ever do and will bring us great reward. The last word goes to Paul:[SLIDE] “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!”Eph 3:20-21