Today, Christians can be a little too prideful about their faith, so here’s how to be holy, stay humble, and be hungry for more of God and His Word.
Becoming Holy
Today, Christians can be a little too prideful about their faith, so here’s why God desires we become holy, stay humble, and be hungry for more of God and His Word. The Apostle Peter told the early church that “it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16), but how can we be holy since all of us fall short of God’s glory by sinning (Rom 3:23, 6:23)? One verse comes to mind: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). That is how we are made holy positionally…or before our standing before God. We’ve been pardoned by heaven’s court through our Advocate, Jesus Christ. So we’re in a right relationship with God now that our sins have previously cut us off from Him (Isaiah 59:2). Our sins have been forgiven, but God still expects His children to live like God’s children, and that should be a desire to live a holy, blameless life before God. No, I don’t mean sinless because that’s not possible this side of the Kingdom, but we should sin less over time as the Spirit does His sanctifying work in us.
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Called to Holiness
Early on, God told Israel, and I believe He tells all of mankind, “I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground” (Lev 11:44). The Apostle Peter reminds of us the holiness of Jesus Christ, saying “as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct” (1 Pet 1:15). That means our faith should be lived out in our conduct; our day to day decisions, deeds, and words. Do they reflect a holy God? The author of Hebrews says “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). I believe that counsel reminds us of those who do not live holy lives will not see the Lord but His wrath (Rev 20:12-15; 21:8). The Apostle John writes this as a warning: “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy” (Rev 22:11). Which of these deeds will we be found doing when our Lord returns? What we’ll be doing when Jesus returns likely determines where we’ll be going for eternity!
Staying Humble
God is pleased with our striving to live holy (yet not perfect) lives, but He also draws closer to those who are humble. He can more easily use those who are small in their own eyes, because that makes God bigger in theirs! James, the brother of Jesus said that God “gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). No one wants to be found opposing God, do they!? The Psalmist says that God “leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way” (Psalm 25:9). Don’t you want to know that way to go in life?
Nearer to the Broken
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Did you realize the biblical fact that “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18)? He is nearer to those who are broken; those who are humble before Him, than those who believe they are fine just the way they are. The truth is, none are worthy to come to God but only through Christ can we do that. That should humble us that Jesus humbled Himself, even to the point of suffering and death of the cross (Phil 2:8).
Being Hungry
God says through His Word that “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart” (Psalm 119:2). The Psalmist had such a hunger and thirst for God’s Word that he wrote, “With my whole heart I seek you” (Psalm 119:10a). Can we say that!? Even with the elementary principles of our salvation (i.e., Eph 2:8-9), we should be “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Pet 2:2). A new believer should crave that milk of the Word and in time, grow up into maturity and desire the meat of the Word.
Milk to Meat
In a slight rebuke of the Jewish converts to Christianity, the author of Hebrews says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food” (Heb 5:12). In other words, they had failed to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18) and weren’t even weaned! That’s because “everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child” (Heb 5:13). If there’s a milk-only diet, then they’ll have trouble discerning biblical truth from false teachings. Peter’s reference about the pure spiritual milk leads to their development as a “grown up,” spiritually speaking, but “solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:14). The mature believer can smell a fake more easily than a mil-diet or non-growing Christian. Thus, they are more easily deceived.
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Conclusion
God’s will for our lives is that we live holy lives in this world (Rom 12:2), even though we’ll fail and fall into sin, but He also wants us to stay humble and depend on Him and not esteem ourselves better than anyone (Phil 2:3) And God desires that we have an intense hunger for Him and His Word. Therein Scripture lays eternal life, so like you, I too must strive for holiness in this life; I too had better remain humble before God and others; and I also must pray God give me an intense hunger for Him and a great thirst for His Word. All the while we must remember Satan is a master of disguise and a counterfeit better than anyone. He can even make lies seem acceptable, and a half-truth seem like all the truth, but if there is any other gospel than that which Jesus Christ brought of repentance and faith (Mark 1:15), then they are accursed by God (Gal 1:8) and we are to have nothing to do with them and their works of darkness. God tells us to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Eph 5:11), and that’s what I am trying to do; discern and expose the frauds…but that comes from a lot of “meat” of the Word. All we can do is expose those ministries who are counterfeit Christian ministers. I’d surely want to know the truth. Wouldn’t you?
Here is some related reading for you: How to Remain Humble in a Fallen World [4]
Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.