Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for revival and for the church to be washed and made pure reflects the very heart of what God desires for His people. It is good to ask that God would fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory and shine the light of Christ into hearts, and that He would do that work first in us, in our families and in our congregations.
Scripture says Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, and present it to Himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. That washing is not an outward form. Holiness is not a matter of dress or external standards that people can publish and enforce. Jesus taught that what defiles a person comes from the heart, and that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. True holiness is a matter of the heart being made pure before God. As Scripture says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, and without holiness no one will see the Lord. We should not let abuses of the idea of holiness cause us to neglect the true holiness God calls us to, a life that is pleasing to Him.
That calling is clear. This is the will of God, your sanctification. God has called us not to impurity but to holiness, that each one would know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust like those who do not know God. This speaks to sexual purity and to keeping ourselves set apart for the covenant of marriage as God designed it, one man and one woman for life, with all intimacy belonging within that covenant. Holiness is rightness of character and righteousness is rightness of conduct. Righteousness grows out of holiness as fruit grows from a root. Any attempt to live rightly without a holy heart will break down, because only a pure core can sustain right actions. God gives us His Holy Spirit not as a reward we earn after we have made ourselves holy enough, but as a gift received by faith so that we can become holy. We cannot achieve this purity on our own. It is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the good works He prepared for us.
Your prayer for reconciliation also follows the gospel. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us, and He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That reconciliation is first vertical, between God and humanity through the blood of Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant who by one offering has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Out of that vertical peace flows the horizontal work of unity. Jesus prayed that His people would be one, and we are called to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, building up the body in love until we all come to unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. The oneness God desires is not mere uniformity but a living compound unity, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one, and we are to reflect that unity as we love one another, continue in His word, and let truth sanctify us.
So we join you in praying that the Holy Spirit would continue His sanctifying work, that the word of God would cleanse and renew our minds, that we would walk in purity and love not the world, and that we would be faithful in the work of an evangelist, proclaiming the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, so that others may be gathered to the marriage supper of the Lamb. May the Lord establish your heart blameless in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus, and make you ready as part of that pure bride, clothed in fine linen which is the righteous deeds of the saints, all by His grace.
Scripture says Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, and present it to Himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. That washing is not an outward form. Holiness is not a matter of dress or external standards that people can publish and enforce. Jesus taught that what defiles a person comes from the heart, and that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. True holiness is a matter of the heart being made pure before God. As Scripture says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, and without holiness no one will see the Lord. We should not let abuses of the idea of holiness cause us to neglect the true holiness God calls us to, a life that is pleasing to Him.
That calling is clear. This is the will of God, your sanctification. God has called us not to impurity but to holiness, that each one would know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust like those who do not know God. This speaks to sexual purity and to keeping ourselves set apart for the covenant of marriage as God designed it, one man and one woman for life, with all intimacy belonging within that covenant. Holiness is rightness of character and righteousness is rightness of conduct. Righteousness grows out of holiness as fruit grows from a root. Any attempt to live rightly without a holy heart will break down, because only a pure core can sustain right actions. God gives us His Holy Spirit not as a reward we earn after we have made ourselves holy enough, but as a gift received by faith so that we can become holy. We cannot achieve this purity on our own. It is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the good works He prepared for us.
Your prayer for reconciliation also follows the gospel. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us, and He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That reconciliation is first vertical, between God and humanity through the blood of Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant who by one offering has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Out of that vertical peace flows the horizontal work of unity. Jesus prayed that His people would be one, and we are called to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, building up the body in love until we all come to unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. The oneness God desires is not mere uniformity but a living compound unity, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one, and we are to reflect that unity as we love one another, continue in His word, and let truth sanctify us.
So we join you in praying that the Holy Spirit would continue His sanctifying work, that the word of God would cleanse and renew our minds, that we would walk in purity and love not the world, and that we would be faithful in the work of an evangelist, proclaiming the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, so that others may be gathered to the marriage supper of the Lamb. May the Lord establish your heart blameless in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus, and make you ready as part of that pure bride, clothed in fine linen which is the righteous deeds of the saints, all by His grace.
