Progressing in Holiness

Attaining holiness must manifest in the betterment of your relationship with God and all humanity. If your relationships aren’t improving, then you’re not improving.

January’s Awakening, Day 21

True holiness is much more than tears and sighs…A holy violence, a conflict, a warfare, a fight, a soldier’s life, a wrestling are spoken of as characteristics of the true Christian.

 —J. C. Ryle

Progress in holiness can best be measured not by the length of time we spend in prayer, not by the number of times we go to church, not by the amount of money we contribute to God’s work, not by the range and depth of our knowledge of the Bible, but rather by the quality of our personal relationships.

 —Stephen F. Winward 

True holiness does not consist merely of believing and feeling, but of doing and bearing, and a practical exhibition of active and passive grace. Our tongues, our tempers, our natural passions and inclinations—our conduct as parents and children, masters and servants, husbands and wives, rulers and subjects—our dress, our employment of time, our behavior in business, our demeanor in sickness and health, in riches and poverty—all, all these are matters which are fully treated by inspired writers.

 —J. C. Ryle

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:17–18 NIV

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22–24 NIV 

            If we are progressing in our attainment of holiness, it should first be evident in our relationship with God, and second, in all our other interpersonal relationships. Becoming holy is being continually made new in the attitude of our minds. It is rejecting the old ways of life—the old thought patterns, the old way of reacting to events, the old behaviors, the old way of interacting with God and all humanity—and putting on the new self in Christ, with all the new attitudes, desires, and behaviors that mirror and mimic Christ. It truly is a battleground and constant struggle to stuff the old and wear the new. It is a war waged every day, and it is a war we must win—with Him.