January 14 | Wholly Holy
1 Peter 1:15-16, ”15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.”
Imagine you’ve been playing volleyball in your friend’s backyard all afternoon, on a hot sunny summer day, with temperatures in the 90’s. After the last game, you ask your friend for a cold glass of water because you’re extremely dehydrated. He quickly returns with a glass of water and just as you take your first gulp he says, “I got it from the toilet, hope you don’t mind!”
What would you do? Chances are you would spit out the water, chase down your friend and never let anyone get you a glass of water, again. After we are saved, the same is true with God. He asks us to be a pure drink offering unto Him, so we cannot present ourselves to Him full of impurities.
God saves us to cleanse and purify us from all sin (1 John 1:9). He wants us to be 100% holy and set apart from our sins. He doesn’t want us just to be 95% or even 99.99% pure. God wants us to be wholly holy, 100%. When a person is saved and cleansed from all their sins, they should remain that way by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If the believer should sin, the blood of Jesus will cleanse them and make them 100% pure when they repent and let God change their habits.
Don’t live for Jesus, partially, and have Him spit you out of His mouth on Judgment Day (Revelation 3:16). Be holy and free from sin because God is holy. Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Christ will be master of the heart, and sin must be mortified. If your life is unholy, then your heart is unchanged, and you are an unsaved person. The Savior will sanctify His people, renew them, give them a hatred of sin, and a love of holiness.”
Remember, you can’t save or cleanse yourself. Salvation (being forgiven of sin) and sanctification (being made separate from sin) come from the grace of God, the Father, are received from Jesus, by faith and are sealed by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22). Live wholly holy by the power of our Holy God living inside of you!
Reflection
Action
- Search your heart in prayer, today, to see if you are living wholly holy.
- If God shows you any sin(s), ask Him to cleanse you and break the habit of sin in your life.
- Keep your heart from sin by living holy, because God made you holy.