All Christians should desire to please God. The real question, however, is are we actually pleasing Him? Saying that we want to, and really doing it, are two different matters. In our last blog we emphasized pleasing God by put Him first in our lives (Matthew 6:33). Something else we must do in order to please our Creator is to live lives of holiness.

If we want to continue to have fellowship with God, we must be holy. Remember, God is morally perfect and, therefore, cannot tolerate any kind of sin. John wrote about this in his first epistle.

1 John 1:5-6 (ESV)
⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

While we are not morally perfect, we have to do our best to remain morally pure and to please God. We can only do this by living holy lives. Holiness has to do with living a sanctified or separated life. To be holy, then, is to separate ourselves from things that are displeasing to God. The challenge in life is not to give in to the things that are popular with the world. We cannot be holy if we are unwilling to be different from the majority. Being different is a reoccurring theme in the New Testament.

Romans 12:2 (ESV)
² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

To conform to this world is to act in agreement with it, and when we do that in areas which are contrary to the will of God, we cease to be holy. Let us not conform to this world in our speech. Paul once exhorted Christians to not allow corrupt communication to proceed out of their mouths (Ephesians 4:29). Instead, our speech needs to be seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6). This means we must avoid things like gossip, sarcasm, rudeness, and, of course, bad language.

Colossians 3:8 (ESV)
⁸ But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Another area in which we should be holy is our dress. This is difficult because most people today dress immodestly. To complicate things further, it is hard to even find modest clothing in our stores today. It takes determination to be holy in this area – the same kind of determination that Daniel demonstrated when he was instructed to eat at the kings table. He refused to do it, not wanting to defile himself before God (Daniel 1:8). It is noteworthy that Daniel resolved not to do this. Being holy is not something that happens by accident. We must make up in our minds that this is what we what to be. Once we do that, we will not wear clothes that God would disapprove of, even though they are popular with the people around us. We must avoid things like jeans that are too tight, blouses that are too low, or shorts that we too short (1 Timothy 2:9).

To be holy is to refrain from the works of the flesh and bring forth the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26). Let us do our best to live up to the moral standard of the Word of God. This may not be popular, but it will be pleasing to God, and that should be the goal of our lives.

As you wind down for the night, think on these things. —