The command of God that we should be holy is not to be considered only as an effect of power and authority, which we must submit unto, but as a fruit of infinite wisdom and goodness also, which it is our highest advantage and interest to comply with.https://ccel.org/ccel/owen/pneum/pneum.i.ix.iii.html
We forget that God's primary goal ia not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy.
If we want to be fruitful in evangelism, we must cultivate holiness of life.Rediscovering Holiness: Know the Fullness of Life with God (Kindle Location 456). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Holiness is actually the true health of the person. Anything else is ugliness and deformity at character level; a malfunctioning of the individual; a crippled state of soul. The various forms of bodily sickness and impairment that Jesus healed are so many illustrations of this deeper, inward deformity.Rediscovering Holiness: Know the Fullness of Life with God (Kindle Locations 444-446). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
whatever further reasons there may be why God exposes us to the joys and sorrows, fulfillments and frustrations, delights and disappointments, happinesses and hurts, that make up the emotional reality of our lives, all these experiences are part of His curriculum for us in the school of holiness, which is His spiritual gymnasium for our reshaping and rebuilding in the moral likeness of Jesus Christ.Rediscovering Holiness: Know the Fullness of Life with God (Kindle Locations 138-141). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
But the shift of Christian interest away from the pursuit of holiness to focus on fun and fulfillment, ego massage and techniques for present success, and public issues that carry no challenge to one's personal morals, is a fact. To my mind it is a sad and scandalous fact, and one that needs to be reversed.Rediscovering Holiness: Know the Fullness of Life with God (Kindle Locations 44-46). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. For the Love of God Vol 2