Me and the old lady finna…
And you got the nerve to call her that when she supposed to be your help, your confidant. But nope, you call her the old lady… the ball and chain.
I wonder what else that’s supposed to help we end up calling a thing that hurts us.
Whenever I heard holiness in my younger times in Christ, subconsciously it would produce in me a jitter. A sort of a grimace. “That means I can’t do NUTHIN.” And it is obvious to any mature saint that that is simply all wrong.
The first part of the case is this, God said “Be ye Holy as I am Holy”, (1 Pet. 1:16). We are “Partakers of the divine nature”, (2 Pet. 1:4), by invitation. You cannot even be holy without God calling you to… because that’s exactly what holiness is.
It is a separation, a setting apart unto God that makes whatever object or, more importantly, PERSON holy. So the next obvious question is why does God want us to be holy?
Well what is unholy? There are a lot of unholy things, and people, and events, and music, and etc. that are not glorifying to God. The issue is that WE are unholy and do unholy things coming into Christ that make up the strongholds that we spend so much time fighting in our daily living. And for those who ain’t been to bible study, strongholds are patterns of thinking that are against the knowledge of God in a soul.
This is crucial to understand in spiritual warfare, “for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the PULLING DOWN of strongholds.” (2 Cor 10:3-5). God can destroy the evil that causes or reinforces the stinking thinking that you’re used to doing, and replace it with his glorious word so that you can learn to live in… you guessed it… HOLINESS!
Here is the premise. The reason holiness is NOT a ball and chain is because through the surrender to God required for “True holiness”, (Eph 5:24), the Spirit of God can have “free course”, (2 Thess 3:1), in your life and can give you the life and peace that comes from the spiritual mind, (Rom. 8:6).
The Solution:
We must “set our affections on things above”, (Just go read ALL of Col. 3, it’s good for you).
We have to desire what God desires for us.
One of those things is the ever important quality of holiness that marks a SPIRITUAL child of God.
A child of God without “True Holiness”, (Eph 5:24), is still a carnal man, being led by the flesh in their decisions, relationships, emotions, reactions, responses, and disciplines, (or lack thereof).
And THAT my friends, is the true ball and chain.
Jesus, Leland, and Reason 