Holiness is essential for Mission. What I mean by that is that if you as a Christian want to live a life on Mission for God, if you want to be on Mission with God in this world Making Him known, then you must live a holy life! The Bible is pretty clear about this, that Christians are meant to live holy lives (1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 Thessalonians 4:4-8; Ephesians 4:24-30; Colossians 3:12; Hebrews 12:14; Romans 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 1:4; Philippians 4:8 Just to name a few). It seems like to me then that if God asks us to live out a holy, and blameless life he has a great reason. He is using our example of holy living to give the world a picture of what Christ offers those who put their faith in Him and repent from their sins. When we fail to live a life of consistent holiness we forfeit the right to be a faithful witness in the world as we live on Mission. Philippians 2:14-15 explains this, "Do all things without grumbling of complaining that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, in which you shine like stars in the world." The implication is that if we live holy lives, we will shine like stars in the universe, and that if we do not live holy lives we will forfeit the right to shine like stars in the universe.
Stopped looking at Pornography
Stopped smoking weed
Gave up premarital sex
Stopped committing adultery
Paid their taxes
Stopped cussing and using profanity
Stopped loving violence (or being violent)
Stopped cussing and using profanity
Stopped loving violence (or being violent)
and maybe even fostered or adopted a child that would have otherwise been aborted
The Church would look completely different, not because of how we judge those outside the church, which is what we are so good at lately in the evangelical world. We would actually be transformed from within, because of how we are transformed inside the church. We cannot be missional without this inward transformation first. If we try to be missional without a holiness transformation first, then we have NO real credibility. Holiness is essential for mission! So if you practice one of these things on a regular basis. Please don't try to be missional first, be holy first, then missional. Otherwise just stay home and don't tell anyone you are a Christian! If you are sleeping around, smoking weed, etc then please don"t tell anyone you are a Christian you are hurting us more than helping. We follow Jesus..."But as he who called you is holy, you also should be holy in all you do."
Imagine the Church being a "holy missional force" in the world! If we were holy we could bring the kingdom of God and His gospel to a hurting and dying world. The world needs this type of Holy transformational Mission. Not just mission to do good things. We need Good words, Good works, and Good lives to be effective for such a Good master.
The scandal of Grace is that He died to make us holy, and by His grace we can be holy, live holy, and become more and more holy day by day...
Imagine the Church being a "holy missional force" in the world! If we were holy we could bring the kingdom of God and His gospel to a hurting and dying world. The world needs this type of Holy transformational Mission. Not just mission to do good things. We need Good words, Good works, and Good lives to be effective for such a Good master.
The scandal of Grace is that He died to make us holy, and by His grace we can be holy, live holy, and become more and more holy day by day...
