One Sign of the Mark of God on Ones Life is Holiness

“For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (1 Thessalonians 4:6-7)

I am often brought into an uncomfortable discussion. In gist, so and so is a Christian because at some point in their life they made a confession that they wanted to follow Jesus. Often, the person in mind is one of our children or another close relationship.

This question and the answer that is already in their mind, is based upon a wrong idea of what grace actually means. At the outset let me clarify that of course there are going to be ups and downs in all of our lives as we walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit. But, this also holds the key to our understanding.

We have been called to holiness, not impurity: impurity of any kind. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to grow righteousness in those of us who have been born again in Jesus. So, there will be a growing expression of the things that are holy, even while there are continual battles against the flesh that still does daily battle against the daily call of the Spirit.

The longer we walk with the Spirit, the more often we recognize his voice to us in Scripture. His call is always to holiness. He never calls us to impurity. Indeed, the Spirit immediately convicts us that we need not, we must not linger in impurity.

And, so, Paul’s conclusion is really quite stark. We too often ask, “yes, I know that so and so has no evidence of holiness, but, don’t you think.....?” To this Paul says, “Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you”

God will determine who actually belongs to Him. But, I don’t want to be found to be an obstacle to the convicting work of the Spirit of God, simply because someone made a confession. I would rather find the way to bring true faith into focus and allow the evidence of faith to be clearly seen: increasing holiness.