The Alpha of Holiness

uv 3052/10000 The Alpha of Holiness
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
I Peter 1 v 15

The human concept of morality is derived from the attribute of holiness of God. Our sense of right and wrong emerges from the fact that we are creatures of a God who is absolutely and uniquely holy. Jesus exhorts His followers, “ Be perfect as your Father in heaven in perfect.” Christ provided us the model of perfection. We are to aim for Christ-like perfection in all of our conduct, thoughts, words and actions. We should strive to be blameless in how we behave, in what we say and what we do. We have the help of the Holy Spirit in this process of sanctification.

Once we are redeemed by faith in Christ, we are deemed to be perfect in the sight of God by grace but at the same time, we have a responsibility to be perfect in real time by seeking continual improvement in our character, our conduct, our speech, our reactions and our actions. We are called to be holy or blameless in all of our conduct. The Holy Spirit will point out to us the areas where we need to change or improve. When we pray earnestly and seek the Lord’s grace to perfect ourselves in these areas, He helps us overcome our weaknesses and become Christ-like.
The practical way to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification or perfection is to focus on one area of change of our character or conduct at a time. The most important aspect of our conduct is our communication. We should aim to always communicate in such a way as to build up others, not to harm them or hurt or malign others. St James wrote that if a man learns to control his tongue and never errs in his conversation, he is perfect or blameless. The tongue has power of life and death in it. We must speak in such a way that it releases consistently the power of eternal life. In short, words that reflect and enhance love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control should only roll off our tongues. A life that is perfected is full of such spiritual fruit.