But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
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As the body of Christ, you and I must understand that every sin damages the entire body; when a member of the body of Christ does something that is not honorable, it affects all of us. There has been what I call an epidemic of misconduct in the church that ranges from sexual immorality, molestation, divorces, to drunkenness and even drug abuse. I don't know if it is the technology, but news of church leaders misconduct have increased in recent years and frankly, we are not surprised anymore. Let us be honest, Christians have a tendency to sweep things under the rug. I know this for a fact because I grew up in church. It is easier to hide thing as opposed to dealing with them, and that is definitely not what Christ had taught us. Christ came to bring darkness to light.
There comes a time when we have to be serious about the cause of holiness. God is Holy and He wants the body of Christ to be like Him. We cannot and should no longer accept being human as an excuse for dwelling in sin. Christ's death forever change our sinful nature. It is your responsibility and mine to strive for holiness, and to look like our Father. We should not live our lives like others from various reality shows. We must keep certain standards. We should not be afraid to stand for core values. It makes me so angry when the voice of immorality and is louder the holiness! We are in the world but we are not of this world. We cannot follow the crowd. We must follow Christ.
I suppose Matthew 5:13-14 express it best: “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house." God does not tolerate the destruction of His house (holy temple). Many years ago when Paul was addressing the Corinthians he points out that sexual immorality and drunkenness as being damaging to the body. In fact, we know that every form of sin hurts the body of Christ, the temple of God. This day and age, we seem to be too tolerant of the destruction of the Church and we don't hold our leaders accountable for their behaviors. We rationalize it and claim that they aren't hurting anyone but themselves but as we recently found out, no sin is ever private. Jesus died openly and publicly for our sins.
The world loves it when a church leader is revealed to be less than honorable. The church has taken a beating this past year with issues of sexual immorality. There is no difference between the way Christians live and the way the world lives. Christians want to fit in. Holiness is not a popular topic in this "Laissez- faire" culture. Leaders are more interested in expanding and building their own empire than building the kingdom of God. Many church leaders have been married multiple times and/or have had many lovers and homosexuality is rampant in the Christian community. Just a week ago a popular televangelist revealed her sexual sin as though it was nothing in an effort to glorify it in order to relate to mainstream and popular ideology.
The prophet Malachi tells us that marrying unbelieving women, divorcing the wife of one's youth, and the worship of other gods (sex, money and position) is an act of treachery against the whole body. Sin is never honorable. Sin is a disobedience to God and should not be embellished or downplayed. Church leaders cannot exhort the congregation to repentance because they are busy leading their sinful life oblivious to repentance. Each time that the church chooses not to call its members to repentance, the body gets wounded. The world is always observing us. Our lives should be a testimony. Who’s really standing up for the Lord? It is your responsibility and mine to do so. Let us stand together for holiness and righteousness. Let’s go back to the business of soul seeking and not membership growing and getting rich. Let us together make the choice to build up our church as instructed by the Savior Jesus Christ!
And Father Hoe grateful I am for today's word! Thank you for send your son to die for the forgiveness of my sins. Help me live in a way that is pleasing to you. Help me resist the temptations of this world. I want to be like you. In Jesus name the Savior I pray. Amen.
Praise the lord!
