Is It Really That Serious?

So, I'd like to share one of the daily devotions I received from my sister in Christ, Dawn Washington. I thought it was powerful, sobering, and very true... and I pray it will cause you to examine yourselves again and again in light of a holy and perfect God (as it did for me). We all need to be reminded of what you're about to read -- and let it draw us to the cross in humility, brokenness, and genuine repentance.


Is It Really That Serious?
2 Corinthians 7:1
How often have you heard it said… “Is it that serious?”  That question is typically posed when we desire to downplay something that someone has said.  When it relates to the question of sin and pursuing holiness, the answer is a resounding YES!  Yes, it is that serious.  Leviticus 19:2 says, “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.”  I find that I spend more of my time these days lamenting over the state of the body of Christ.   My heart weeps at our indifference to sin and wickedness. The pursuit of holiness has become merely an admirable pursuit of a few.

God has beckoned and is beckoning all those who are His to be like Him… holy.  He has given us the power to do such an impossible feat through His son, Jesus Christ.  Today, I want to begin to take a stab at the idea of the believer pursuing holiness relentlessly.  Paul says to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” I want to walk through this passage.

We must first ask, what promises do we have?  Prior to chapter 7, Paul has been reaffirming all that we have in Christ and why we must not lose heart.  For the work of Calvary’s cross, the debt we owed and could not pay, the righteousness we have been given, the adoption into the family… based on these promises we should “cleanse ourselves from ALL defilement of flesh and spirit.” It should be our very good pleasure and earnest desire to please God by pursuing holiness.

All too often, we (I am myself included in times past), make light of being holy before God.  Our sins do not present a very real threat to our spiritual walk.  We count them as a ‘mere’ struggle that we are ‘working on.’  If this has ever been your thinking, join me a moment of repentance. Lord, forgive us for making light of the load of sins you carried to the cross for us.  Forgive us for allowing the complacency of our sin to allow our voices to be heard among the scoffers at the foot of the cross who cheered for your crucifixion.  Please forgive us.

God is calling us, every moment of every day, to purge ourselves from all sin and the appearance of sin. We are charged to give no place to the devil. Our continual motivation is found in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” We owe God.  We are indebted to Him for His love to save us from sin.  So then shall we continue in it?  Romans 6:1-4 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

God demands it so much that in Hebrews 12:14-17 He says, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

Please… I beg of you to hear my heart on this.  God wants holiness. Pursue it with everything you got. Counsel towards holiness. Shun even the appearance of evil. Don’t compromise Christ righteousness in you for anyone or anything.  Don’t play with sin.  Don’t play with circumstances that lead to sin.  I am a living, breathing witness that sin will make a fool of you and blaspheme the faith for which you stand!

My closing admonition comes from Hebrews 10:26-31. “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY." And again, "THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE." It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

As always, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
(2 Peter 3:18 ESV)

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