Holiness

 This mighty God of Salvation calls His people, "with a holy calling."  And He says to them, "Be ye
holy in all manner of conversation."  the word conversation has the meaning of all of life's relationships,
departments and aspects.  We are to be separate from sin and dedicated to God in all that we do!  There
may be no question about it whatsoever that we are indeed saints!  Not simply that we are church-goers, but
holy children of God in word and in truth!  The apostle says in verse 14 that we are to do this as obedient
children; children must always be characterized by obedience.  And since we are adopted into the family of
God, our obedience must be unto Him.  We are called to love Him and seek Him.  We are called to love
what God loves, and hate what God hates.  And the apostle warns us that we are not to conform ourselves to
former lusts, to the motions of our sinful natures, to carnal, unlawful desires.  God has called us out of that
and away from that so that we are not to walk in those lusts or in that ignorance any longer.
 Sadly it is very easy to be conformed to such things again, for those lusts are in our flesh and sin is
appealing to our flesh.  The things of which we read in the newspapers, the thins that are promoted in the
movies and the television programs, the things that we know are corrupt and displeasing, that appeal to the
old man of sin in us.  And that means we are called to fight valiantly against all sin.  The saint wants to be
holy, because God is holy and because God calls us to be holy; but he who would be holy must fight!  And
there is nothing in all this world to support you or sustain you in that fight.  The only thing that will support
you is that which God has placed in your heart, and which God nourishes with His Word and Spirit.  We are
sanctified by obeying the truth through the Spirit (Verse 22).
 Actually the Greek does not say "Be holy," but it states, "Become holy."  this makes clear that
sanctification is a process that continues throughout the Christian's life.  In Christ we are holy in principle so
that before God we are clothed in white robes of dazzling splendor.  But as long as we live on this earth we
still continue to sin and we stain our garments with the filth of sin.  Therefore God comes to us through the
Gospel trying us as by fire, chastening us with sore remedies, that the impure may be burned away and the
rebellious may be driven out.  As the all-wise, holy Father, God knows how to warn, admonish, exhort, and
threaten us even as He preaches the sweet Gospel of Jesus Christ to us.
 Thus we finish our earthly pilgrimage as strangers on the earth with our faces toward heavenly
Jerusalem, touching not the unclean thing.  One day soon Jesus will appear.  We don't know just what we
will be at that time, but we know that when Jesus appears, "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is!"  That is our hope.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure!