HOLINESS, THE CHRISTIAN’S LIFE STYLE
“You must be made new in mind and spirit, and put on the new nature of God’s creating, which shows itself in the just and devout life called for by the truth.” Ephesians 4:23-24 NEB
“There was no king in Israel at that time. Everyone did whatever they pleased.” Judges 21:25
Note the end product of a Christ less life, even though no violation of “Rights” are involved:
1. Unawareness of own sin.
2. Loss of the conscienceless of sin and shame.
3. Selfish satisfaction of own sensual desires.
These five points can be noted in the death of any nation:
1. Truth perverted to private purposes.
2. No concern or involvement in needs of “neighbors”.
3. Knowledge lacking common values: honesty, decency, home life, chastity, and human values. These have been replaced by situation ethics.
4. People blinded by and “Education without God” to hand of God in history as it moves the universe.
5. The culture of a godless society is past feeling, there is no reaction to sin and consequences.
We must be aware every moment of our lives that we are responsible to the testimony of our lips. Proof of a Christ-life is the result of what we testify to. This is the same as following a recipe for a cake.
In our key verse we have “new in mind and spirit”, there is something more here, let’s see if we can find it.
Here we see “True Holiness” as entire sanctification, Christian perfection, baptism with the Holy Spirit, or whatever. The important factor is the reality of the grace in our hearts in the manifestation the whole life style.
This lesson is the “Before” and “After” of life as it relates to contrast between the unconverted and the converted.
What is the mind? Can it be found by the surgeon’s scalpel? The brain yes, but what about the mind? Can “digestion” be found in like manner? The stomach and intestines yes, but the “digestion” no more than the mind can be found.
The mind is the “working of the brain: this is the same relating to digestion.
How does one learn? The exercising of the brain is just about the only way known. Paul did not deny that ecstasy has a place in Christianity, emotional highs. Paul knew the only way the Holiness life can be brought into being was to and is to put on the “new man”. Learn how this is done.
Paul carefully in many places tells us that the only way to put off the “old man” is to put on the “new one”.
We today follow one of the sayings of the “Marxists” in that we tend to agree with those who declare the “right way” to be THAT WHICH DOES THE MOST GOOD FOR THE MOST PEOPLE. Work you mind on that statement, it rolls from the tongue smoothly, leaves really no bad taste, but is it not a shading of the truth? The leading to the total acceptance that PERSUASION IS THE WAY TO GET THINGS DONE, EVEN IF ONE MUST AVOID USING THE TOTAL TRUTH. The little white lie is not just telling it different, it is also the failure to tell it all. Verse 25 “Then throw off all falsehood; speak the truth to each other”.
Honesty is more than slipping around falsehoods. Honesty is a way of life. It is life lived without imitation. The honest person does not have to “Remember what he said”.
Holiness is not something carried in a bucket, or worn like a coat. HOLINESS IS A VIBRANT LIFE STYLE, FOREVER OUTGOING, IT NEVER TURNS INWARD, FOR TO DO SO DESTROYS IT. IT IS A LIFE OF KINDNESS, FORGIVING AND FORGETTING.
All this comes under the meaning of the key verse.
We have a brain, we can and we do control our thoughts and by putting them in the right channels then we have a renewing of the mind – the mind is the end result of our brain exercise. Show me what you read and I will tell you where you live.
