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From Here to Forever
perfected.”
1 John 2:4, 5
. Here is the test of every man’s profession.
If men belittle and make light of God’s precepts, if they “break one
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of the least of these commandments and teach men so” (
Matthew
5:18, 19
), we may know that their claims are without foundation.
The claim to be without sin is evidence that he who makes this
claim is far from holy. He has no true conception of the infinite
purity and holiness of God, and the malignity and evil of sin. The
greater the distance between himself and Christ, the more righteous
he appears in his own eyes.
Biblical Sanctification
Sanctification embraces the entire being—spirit, soul, and body.
See
1 Thessalonians 5:23
. Christians are bidden to present their
bodies, “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”
Romans 12:1
.
Every practice that weakens physical or mental strength unfits man
for the service of his Creator. Those who love God with all their
heart will constantly seek to bring every power of their being into
harmony with the laws that promote their ability to do His will. They
will not by indulgence of appetite or passion enfeeble or defile the
offering they present to their heavenly Father.
Every sinful gratification tends to benumb and deaden the mental
and spiritual perceptions; the Word or Spirit of God can make but a
feeble impression on the heart. “Let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God.”
2 Corinthians 7:1
.
How many professed Christians are debasing their godlike man-
hood by gluttony, by wine drinking, by forbidden pleasure. And
the church too often encourages the evil, to replenish her treasury
which love for Christ is too feeble to supply. Were Jesus to enter
the churches of today and behold the feasting there conducted in the
name of religion, would He not drive out those desecrators, as He
banished the moneychangers from the temple?
“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
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which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
. He
whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit will not be enslaved by