In the series, we established that the Christian church has always called for morality and holiness in its people (with varying degrees of success). It is true that mistakes have been made in application, but the energizing spirit behind the call for holiness is the Spirit of the Lord. Those who decry standards of holiness today are the innovators.<\/p>\n
Our intent has been to uphold salvation by grace alone and not to impose a new structure of law on the Christian church. Rather, we want to establish minimum standards of conduct as a guide (and a goad) on the path to perfect holiness, the goal of Christian life. [And our expectation is that none of us will achieve that goal in this life – but we will die trying.]<\/p>\n
We offered seven reasons why Christians should proclaim and practice standards of holiness in Christian living:<\/p>\n
1. There is such a thing as behaviour that pleases God
2. The fact is, faith is more than just your ticket to heaven
3. The operation of God\u2019s grace in a Christian life tends towards godliness (Tit 2.11-12)
4. The notion of lawlessness is incompatible with Christianity
5. The liberty part of Christian liberty means \u2018set free\u2019, not \u2018self serve\u2019
6. The Christian mission is ultimately tasked with the discipline of discipleship (Mt 28.19-20)
7. The nature of Christianity is that its people are subjects of The King<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This brings us to Separation from the World<\/i>. Our text was 1 Jn 2.15-17.<\/p>\n
In this message we defined the world as the value system and philosophy of men without God. I noted that our text calls us not to love this world, neither the things in this world. The phrase ‘in the world’ here bears some resemblance to Paul’s phrase, ‘in Christ’. Just as the believer is ‘immersed in Christ’, made a wholly new man, under new lordship, and so on, just so the ‘things in the world’ are immersed in the world system and are thus affected by its values and thinking.<\/p>\n
It is important to recognize that the ‘things in the world’ as defined in 1 Jn 2.16 are actually ‘outside’ of us, they are things in the world<\/i>. One of the complicating factors in understanding the passage is that we recognize these things as also being in<\/i> us, that is, in our old nature. The apostle’s focus here is not on us, however, it is on the world. We are not to love the world nor the things-in-the-world<\/i>. They are dominated by a world-system opposed to God. So for example, we have these kinds of things ‘in the world’:<\/p>\n