1 Thessalonians 5:23a "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely."
We often hear the word "sanctified" brought up in church. But what does it truly mean to be sanctified? How does it apply to our lives outside the four walls of the church? These are important questions to ask if we are to truly be followers of Christ.
To be sanctified means that we are set apart for use by God. It is closely related to holiness. If we are sanctified we are taken away from secular use and made useful to God.This is important if we are to live the Christian life.
We cannot become sanctified by ourselves, however. However hard we may try, by ourselves we can only cover up those things that are undesirable to God. Yet God knows that these things are there. It is only when we turn these things over to God that we can be sanctified.
In the end, it is important for us to understand that we do not sanctify ourselves. God sanctifies His people by His grace. This is truly a blessing, as it allows us to be useful to God.
Scripture applies to all of us. It applies to the person who has never stepped foot in church as well as the person who was born in church. It applies to me and it applies to you. Although it may be difficult to swallow some of the teachings of Scripture, these teachings are still applicable to our lives. This includes this passage from Romans.
God did not only create Christians. He created those who have turned their backs on Him, as well. He loves them, and He loves us. He makes it rain on both the non-Christian and the Christian. As creatures of God, we have all sinned against God. We have gone our own way, and without our Creator, we have no purpose, no meaning, no hope. However, our Creator did give us purpose, meaning, and hope in the person of Jesus Christ.
When God sent Jesus to bear our punishment and rise from the dead, God formed the church and gave these followers of Jesus a purpose, namely to reach out to those still do not have any purpose, meaning or hope and telling them of God's love and His gift of eternal life available through Christ alone. In other words, God gave the church a purpose of finding the lost and bringing Jesus to them.
God also gave us meaning through Jesus Christ. Sin separated us from God and took away our purpose for living--to glorify God. It is impossible for an unholy people to perfectly glorify a holy God. We could praise Him and worship Him, but we could never truly glorify Him. However, when Jesus bore our sins, God reinstated our purpose. That is, through Jesus we can live holy lives, forgiven of our sins, glorifying God. We could not do this without Jesus.
Finally, God gave us hope through the person of Jesus. Jesus not only bore our sins, giving us purpose and meaning, but He also gave us hope of reconciliation with God. We can come to know God because of Jesus. No one else can do that. Christ will not force us to accept it. We must choose to accept it.
1 John 2:10 "The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him."
When we think of loving others, who do we think of? Friends? Family? Coworkers? The lost? Church members? Our enemies? Although it is important that we choose to love all of these, we should also choose to love our Christian brethren.
It is vital that we, as believers in Christ, love other believers in Christ. First, if we do not love them, who will? The world is good at showing love to those from whom it benefits. However, if we have made ourselves foreigners to the world, the world will not desire to love us. The world cannot provide the type of love that Christ has commanded His followers to show to each other, anyway.
A Christian who chooses to love his or her brethren does not only step into a relationship with Christ at that moment. He or she must have already been a Christian in order to call his or her fellow Christian his or her brethren. The Christian who loves his or her brethren remains in the light. It is a constant thing, not something that passes.
As Christians, we are commanded to love those who Christ has already loved. We can rest assured that, even when it may seem difficult to love some of them, Christ has already given us the example by loving our brethren. Christ did not leave us without an example to follow.
When we choose to love our brethren, we are given this assurance: we will not become a stumbling block to our brother or sister. If we abide in love, we can only help our brethren, and ourselves, draw closer to God. It is a win-win.