If you cleanse yourself from wickedness, you will be a vessel for honor, made holy, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21
We call the Bible holy not just because it is about God or because it is different from all other books. We call it holy because it is so valuable to everyone who reads it. Similarly, as Jesus saves us, we become saints, that is holy ones. We are holy not just because we have been set apart for a special relationship with God, but mostly because we have been changed and made valuable, both to God and to other people. As we follow Jesus in the obedience of faith, we become useful to our Lord, prepared for every good work. Jesus chose us “to save us through the sanctifying of the spirit,” which means he made it possible for us not to take pleasure in opposing God anymore. Jesus is holy: he has infinite, unexcelled, irreplaceable worth because he takes pleasure in all that God is and pleases God by all he does. As he works this into our lives, we can become holy in all our behavior too. In the military, every unit headed for the battlefield goes through a long preparation period, so that when it arrives it is “value added” to the commander. In this work-up, personnel purge their civilian attitudes and behaviors by focusing on their military values and actions. In the same way we must, and can, make ourselves ready for the fight of faith every day, becoming holy by conforming ourselves to lifestyles that are pleasing to God.
Holy God, keep me focused on the attitudes and actions that please you as I prepare myself today for every good work.
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Thanks for this post. I’m glad you bring up this facet.
I am curious where this quote comes from: “to save us through the sanctifying of the spirit”.
Posted by Morgan Knighton | 14 November 2023, 16:08The quotation comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:13. Most English translations render the phrase “for salvation by/through sanctification by the Spirit.” The original language is ambiguous. It literally reads “unto salvation in sanctification of spirit.” The “in” is frequently understood as “by,” and everyone construes it as indicating how the saving is accomplished. So “by” and “through” both do this. The prepositional phrase “sanctification of spirit” is usually rendered “sanctification by the Spirit,” meaning the Holy Spirit sanctifies the person. But there’s nothing in the context that indicates this is the case. This phrase is followed by “and in faith of truth,” which is reasonably rendered “and by faith in the truth.” This is reasonable because in the previous sentence, Paul says that God judges people for two faults: first, that they are “not believing in what is true” (12); second, that they “took pleasure in unrighteousness” (12). He reverses this order in verse 13, placing “faith in the truth” last. For the chiastic structure of verses 12 and 13 to work, the contrasting phrase for “taking pleasure in unrighteousness” needs to relate to a positive characteristic in the person who is being saved, namely having a sanctified/holy spirit (the human faculty which takes pleasure in things and acts in accord with this pleasure), one that, by implication, takes pleasure in doing what is right. Thus the focus of Paul’s statement is on the condition of the human heart, rather than on the agent who created that condition.
Posted by Doug Knighton | 15 November 2023, 11:22Wow! Thanks for explaining!
Posted by Morgan Knighton | 15 November 2023, 16:28