Devotional: The Call To Holiness
Christian Devotion on God calling us to holiness & spiritual maturity
But like the Holy One who
called you, be holy yourselves in all your conduct [be set apart from the world by your godly character and moral
courage]; because it is written, "You shall be holy (set apart), for I am holy."…You, therefore, will be perfect
[growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily
life], as your heavenly Father is perfect. - 1 Peter 1:15-16 & Matthew 5:48 (AMP)
Being "holy" is what God
calls us to—which simply means to be "consecrated, set apart for God's purposes". Being "perfect" is what God calls
us to—which is often translated to mean "complete and spiritually mature". God doesn’t call us to something that
is unattainable. To be holy as God is holy does not mean that we take on God’s "deity", it just means we are
consecrated through the work of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. We are set apart for God—which is what we all
are when we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour—not because of anything we have done or will ever do, but because of
what Christ has done. Through abiding in Christ and abiding in His Word of Truth, we are made holy. We become "perfect" as we
remain in Christ and grow in Him—becoming "spiritually mature" and "complete" in Christ Jesus as we move on from
the basic and elementary teachings and grow towards maturity in Christ. We need to remember that being apart from
Christ, we can do nothing! We are solely dependent on Christ every day. We will always have flaws and weaknesses
in our humanity, God doesn't seem to take that away—He never did for Paul (2 Cor.12:7-10). We often don't "feel" or
"believe" we are holy or perfect in Christ already, because we look at our experiences, our imperfections in the
natural and our flaws. But being "perfect" or "holy" as the Bible instructs us to be is not meaning that we are to
be perfect in the sense of never making mistakes or having human flaws. There is a lot of misconception surrounding
these two words when relating them to scriptures like these, as we often refer to being perfect as not having any
flaws, not making any mistakes and everything we touch turns to gold. This 'perfection' is definitely unattainable
while we are still clothed in our humanity. But the definition of the word "perfect" in the Bible is regarding
"completeness" and "spiritual maturity", which have nothing to do with our human weaknesses, imperfections and
flaws. God has promised us that
His strength & power is made "perfect" in our weakness, it is completed and shows itself most effective in our
weaknesses. This, in fact, keeps us dependent on God—not relying on ourselves. © By M.S.Lowndes
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