Holiness is motivated by the grace of God\u2019s love for us and requires the work of loving him by obeying his commands;<\/p>\n
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2. To Walk in Holiness, We Must Combat Grave Dangers<\/h2>\n
The steadfast love of God should thrill us as \u201cbetter than life\u201d (Ps. 63:3). But as the case of Jonah reminds us, it is possible for God\u2019s love to become nothing more than a sterile fact that we recite and resent (Jonah 4:2). Jesus similarly warns that in the last days, as \u201clawlessness\u201d increases, \u201cthe love of many will grow cold\u201d (Matt. 24:12).\u00a0In a hostile world, surrounded with temptations to idolatry and given to hardness of heart, we can sustain a holy life only through passionate love for God and appreciation of his love for us.<\/p>\n
3. To Walk in Holiness, We Must Cultivate Joyful Dependence<\/h2>\n
To combat danger, we must cultivate passion\u2014but how? Jesus teaches that where many sins are forgiven, much love results (Luke 7:40\u201347); to state the principle more broadly, divine love is best appreciated by those who need it most. Passionate love for God will therefore flourish best when we joyfully embrace our utter dependence on his love\u2014whether as sinners in need of forgiveness or as creatures in need of daily bread. Let us then \u201ckeep [our]selves in the love of God\u201d (Jude 21), employing every means possible to discover in all of Scripture, and in all of life, the ever enduring, earth-filling, steadfast love of the Lord!<\/p>\n
4. To Walk in Holiness, We Must Recapture a Biblical Vision<\/h2>\n
Rather than softening the demands of holiness, emphasis on the love of God intensifies them: to properly honor God\u2019s love for us, we must love him, and him alone, with all that we are (Deut. 6:5), and we must be ready to serve sacrificially not only neighbors but even enemies (Rom. 5:8). Nor, if we truly love what God loves, can we be satisfied with a privatized piety, for we are called to delight, as he does, in \u201cpractic[ing] steadfast love, justice, and righteousness\u201d in all the earth (Jer. 9:24). Simply put, God\u2019s vision for the world, and for the role of his holy people in it, is too spectacular to be achieved in response to anything less than his love.<\/p>\n
5. To Walk in Holiness, We Must Be Recaptured by a Powerful Story<\/h2>\n
Thankfully, the love of God not only defines the demands of holiness but provides us with strength to pursue it. Therefore God\u2019s vision for the world, and for his people, also includes frequent retelling of the story of his powerful love. It is powerful enough to awaken the dead: \u201cGod . . . because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ\u201d (Eph. 2:4\u20135); powerful enough to save the world: \u201cGod so loved the world, that he gave his only Son\u201d (John 3:16); powerful enough, even, to change the way we live: \u201cI live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me\u201d (Gal. 2:20).<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/strong>
1. In classical terms, love for God requires both complacentia (satisfaction) and benevolentia (good will); see David Clyde Jones, Biblical Christian Ethics<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids. MI: Baker, 1994), 44\u201348.
2. In view is love for Christ and the gospel; G. K. Beale,\u00a0The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 230\u201331. Cf. Rev. 2:4 with Hos. 6:4.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
This post originally appeared on Crossway.org. Used with permission.<\/p>\n
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Walking in Holiness, Walking in the Love of God The testimony of Scripture is clear: if we want to walk in the way of holiness, the love of God is indispensable to our progress. God\u2019s love for his people is the foundation for all holy living and our love for him its most essential mark. … Continue reading “How the Love of God Helps Us Walk in Holiness”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}