Writer Emily Dickinson remained a hermit in her family home for nearly twenty years. She set herself apart from significant interactions with others to focus on her work, even lowering baskets from windows to receive packages.1 Her social behavior was off-putting and not attractive.
As she sets herself apart because of her writing, God sets his followers apart from people who reject His leadership and live for themselves. As His followers, we are His show-and-tell winsome, attractive exhibits of what the power of His Spirit can do in lives committed to Him.
He sets us apart from serving sin to serve and glorify Him, but we must cooperate. As "ye put on the Lord Jesus Christ," we bless others and demonstrate at least eleven traits of God’s holy people on earth.
To be clear, our behavior isn’t flawless. We too have our off-putting moments. The knees of our trousers are figuratively torn and stained by frequent stumbles in our attempts to walk like our holy God. Yet we live on a significantly higher plane than those living for themselves.
God didn’t choose us merely to live with Him forever but to be holy and set apart from sin’s control. He chose the children of Israel to be holy because He is holy (Leviticus 11:44–45), but they let Him down. They didn’t cooperate.
God calls the church to be His holy people (1 Corinthians 1:2). First, we are holy because of our faith in Christ. God did it. He made us holy by Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit makes us holy when we believe in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13). God pronounces us holy because we are in and identified with holy Christ.
God charges us to do what the children of Israel didn’t—turn the holiness of our position in Christ into practical holy living. Believing in Jesus as our Lord and Savior makes us God’s children charged with pleasing our heavenly Father by becoming increasingly like His beloved Son, Jesus. Only the power of His Spirit working in us enables us to do it.
If someone observed us during thirty random half-hour time slots during the next week, would they suspect we are Christians? Does our lifestyle match our profession? How many of the eleven Jesus-like traits in Colossians 3:12–16 would they observe?
They include:
· Tenderhearted mercy is an inner yearning that feels for and reaches out to the needy.
· Kindness is desiring good for others.
· Humility is seeing ourselves truly as sinners and children of God—not less or more.
· Gentleness is a considerate, quiet submission that gives up rights when no principle is at stake.
· Patience is the steadfast refusal to retaliate despite others’ exasperating conduct.
· Make allowance for and bear with each other’s faults recognizing we have our own.
· Forgiving offenders (for comparatively minor offenses) because Christ forgave our major ones.
· Binding, harmonizing love that sacrifices self to benefit others and ties the eleven traits together.
· Christ’s peace must rule in our hearts when differences threaten to divide us.
· Being thankful for others’ words and deeds nurtures peace in Christ’s church.
· Letting the message about Jesus fill our lives by reading, studying, and submitting to it. God’s word makes us spiritually rich if we let it.
Hypocrisy is putting on a religious act. Why should we do that when we can put on the Lord Jesus Christ? See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians. #freediscipleshipresources #freeevangelismresources #freechristianleadershipresources
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