Be Sanctified! [Bible Teaching]

The issue of sanctification is not regularly heard preached in our generation where people want to hear breakthrough, money, success and power. We tend to think sanctification is small matters of spirituality. We are far from the truth. What we hear regularly is what we price most. Sanctification is a command of God. The Bible says in Leviticus that we must be holy just as our heavenly Father is holy (Leviticus 11:44). We are saved, we are being sanctified and we shall be glorified.

Paul speaking to the church at Thessalonica said that they must endear themselves to the issue of sanctification because it is the will of God for all believers. He said in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 that,

“3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.”

Our sanctification or continuous cleaning or holiness is a matter of great concern to God. It is the will of God decreed in heaven before the foundation of the earth for us. We are born and redeemed to be sanctified. Jeremiah was reminded that God sanctified him as a prophet unto the nations.

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How can we be sanctified?

#1. Sexual Purity

The first thing Paul tells us is to ‘abstain from sexual immorality’. Job said he had made a covenant with his eyes that he will not look at a woman twice in a lustful way (Job 31:1). Joseph run away from Potiphar’s wife who wanted to sleep with him. Fornication and adultery are pure sexual immorality matters. To be holy unto God, we must flee from sexual immorality. Don’t entertain it to fall for it.

#2. Keep Yourself

Secondly, Paul recommends that the believer must ‘possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor’. The vessel is our body that the Holy Spirit of God dwells. Possessing the vessel speaks of how you will hold yourself when you wear a white shirt. You are careful about where you go and what you touch. The Old Testament priest was not to do certain things. It was to help him to possess his body.

#3. No Lustfulness

The last thing we must take heed of is to forgo lust of the flesh. 1 John 2:15-17 says the lust of the flesh is against the will of God. Being lustful is allowing your flesh to dictate how you live your life. And the flesh wrestle with God. Our sanctification will be complete if we can deal with the lust of the flesh.

Sanctification is our major work as believers. God has called us to be sanctified and holy unto Him. He wants us to look like Him. Just as He is, so must we be for men to glorify our Father in heaven. Our sanctification set us apart from a sinful and wicked world that robs our true nature and fruitfulness in Christ.

What do you know about sanctification? Share your thoughts.