Bible League: Living His Word You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.We live in God's world, not our world. We live on His terms, not our terms. We must do what He wants, not what we want. What does God want? He wants us to be holy. That is, He wants us to live life the way He intended it to be lived. He wants us to live life in accordance with His original intent for us at the creation and in accordance with His ongoing providential intent for us. Why does God want us to be holy? He wants us to be holy because we have been created in His image and He is holy. God is not holy, however, because He meets a standard of goodness above Him to which He must be obedient, but because He by His creative and providential word is the very origin and determination of goodness. Given that He is God, it is His prerogative to determine what is good. God's command that we should be holy as He is holy is not a command that was limited to Old Testament times. It is a command for the ages. Jesus said, "But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). And the Apostle Peter said, "But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy" (I Peter 1:15-16). There is a problem, however. The problem is that we can't be holy. We are fallen creatures that are incapable of meeting the standard, incapable of obeying the command. Isaiah said, "We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind" (Isaiah 64:6). If being holy depended on us, we would die in our sins (John 8:24). God, praise His name forever, has a solution to the problem. He has provided a way for us to meet the standard. God made Jesus Christ, who never sinned and was perfectly holy, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right and holy before God through Him (II Corinthians 5:21). In Christ, we can begin to live life the way God intended from the beginning. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJeremiah 14, 15, 16 Jeremiah 14 -- Drought, Famine, False Prophets, Prayer for Mercy NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 15 -- Rejection and Judgments to Come; Jeremiah's Prayer NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 16 -- Disaster and Restoration Foretold NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading 1 Timothy 5 1 Timothy 5 -- Honoring Widows and Elders NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. Insight Paul's instructions encourage responsibility and integrity on the job. Christian employees should do their jobs as if Jesus Christ were their supervisor. And Christian employers should treat their employees fairly and with respect. Challenge Can you be trusted to do your best, even when the boss is not around? Do you work hard and with enthusiasm? Do you treat your employees as people, not machines? Remember that no matter whom you work for, and no matter who works for you, the One you ultimately should want to please is your Father in heaven. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon 2 John 1:2 For the truths sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us forever.Once let the truth of God obtain an entrance into the human heart and subdue the whole man unto itself, no power human or infernal can dislodge it. We entertain it not as a guest but as the master of the house--this is a Christian necessity, he is no Christian who doth not thus believe. Those who feel the vital power of the gospel, and know the might of the Holy Ghost as he opens, applies, and seals the Lord's Word, would sooner be torn to pieces than be rent away from the gospel of their salvation. What a thousand mercies are wrapped up in the assurance that the truth will be with us forever; will be our living support, our dying comfort, our rising song, our eternal glory; this is Christian privilege, without it our faith were little worth. Some truths we outgrow and leave behind, for they are but rudiments and lessons for beginners, but we cannot thus deal with Divine truth, for though it is sweet food for babes, it is in the highest sense strong meat for men. The truth that we are sinners is painfully with us to humble and make us watchful; the more blessed truth that whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus shall be saved, abides with us as our hope and joy. Experience, so far from loosening our hold of the doctrines of grace, has knit us to them more and more firmly; our grounds and motives for believing are now more strong, more numerous than ever, and we have reason to expect that it will be so till in death we clasp the Saviour in our arms. Wherever this abiding love of truth can be discovered, we are bound to exercise our love. No narrow circle can contain our gracious sympathies, wide as the election of grace must be our communion of heart. Much of error may be mingled with truth received, let us war with the error but still love the brother for the measure of truth which we see in him; above all let us love and spread the truth ourselves. Daily Light on the Daily Path Matthew 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."Mark 16:19,20 So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. • And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. John 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." John 14:22,23 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" • Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. Jude 1:24,25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, • to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. 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