Shake Off the Dirt

2 Corinthians 7:1
Richard Spencer | Sunday, April 12, 2026
Copyright © 2026, Richard Spencer

The verse we are looking at this morning is, we believe, in the third letter the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. The first letter, which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9-10, is lost, so the letters we call 1^st and 2^nd Corinthians, are, as far as we know, really the 2^nd and 3^rd letters Paul wrote to this church.

I mention this fact only to point out that the church in Corinth was an important church and well known to the apostle. We are told in Acts 18:11 that Paul spent 18 months in the city during his second missionary journey. He had a great love for these people as well as detailed knowledge of their situation. And independent of the nearly 2,000 year time difference, their situation was, in many ways, similar to ours; believers living in Corinth were surrounded by worldliness and immorality, they lived in a veritable sea of ungodly attitudes and activities.

Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia and was an important commercial center. It was located on the narrow isthmus that separates the northern part of modern Greece, which was the Roman province of Macedonia, from the southern part of Greece, the province of Achaia. This isthmus provided a convenient way for cargo to move from the Aegean Sea on the east, to the Ionian Sea on the west, so Corinth was a prosperous city. And, like most large, cosmopolitan cities, there was a great deal of immorality in Corinth. So much so, in fact, that the Greek verb “to Corinthianize” meant to engage in sexual immorality.

We know from Paul’s letters that because of these facts, the church in Corinth had many problems that are familiar to us in our day and age. The Corinthian Christians were tempted by all kinds of worldly behaviors, just as we are today. In addition, after Paul’s departure from the city, some false teachers had come in, again a problem with which we are all too familiar. False teachers will always be a tool of Satan’s to try and pull God’s children away from the true gospel and holy living by preaching and teaching what people want to hear, rather than what they need to hear.

In the portion of the letter we are looking at today, Paul is admonishing his spiritual children, which includes us, to oppose the moral dirt that surrounds them and to live the holy lives that God demands; and so, I have entitled this sermon, Shake Off the Dirt.

And with that introduction, the verse I want to examine, 2 Corinthians 7:1, says, “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” Or, as the ESV translates the verse, which more closely follows the original Greek, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

I have three main points this morning, which come straight from the verse, and then I will close by considering some applications. The first point is, “Since we have these promises.”

I.             Since we have these promises

Paul begins by saying, “Since we have these promises, beloved”, which tells us that he is drawing a conclusion based on what he had written in the immediately preceding verses. And from this opening statement we can see two things: First, Paul is writing to a specific group of people, a group identified as those possessing certain promises, which he has just written about. And, second, because he calls them his beloved, we learn that these people are loved by the apostle. And we can be sure that the great apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and out of love for these people, told them what they most needed to hear.

And, before we move on, since these people are identified as possessing certain promises, we need to look at the specific promises Paul is referring to, which will allow us to understand why he draws the conclusion he does.

In the preceding verses, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 we read, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ 17 ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’ 18 ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”

Notice that these verses speak of two separate groups of people: believers and unbelievers. And Paul makes the contrast between these two groups very stark indeed. He asks, rhetorically, “what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?” And we need to know that Belial is a Hebrew reference to Satan. The obvious answer to these questions is that there is nothing in common, no fellowship and no harmony between righteousness and wickedness.

Paul then goes on to say, “What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” These are strong statements indeed, and Paul’s point is clear; these are two radically different groups of people. In fact, there are, ultimately, only two groups of people: those whom God has chosen to save and those he has not chosen to save. This is an uncomfortable and unpopular fact, but it is a clear teaching of Scripture.

For example, in 1 John 5:19 the apostle wrote, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” We see two groups. And in Matthew 25:31-33 we are told about the final judgment and are told that when Christ comes again, “he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” The sheep are those who have trusted in Christ and are saved, and the goats are those who refuse to believe in Christ; again, two groups.

Now those who refuse to believe in Christ may be very nice people, they may be honest and hardworking, but they have rejected God’s verdict about man and his testimony about his Son, Jesus Christ. In 1 John 5:10 we are told that “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.” Which is referring to God’s testimony about Jesus. And John goes on in that verse to say that “Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.” Not believing God’s word is a terrible sin. Similarly, in John 3:18 we are told that “Whoever believes in him [that is, in Christ] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” We again see only two groups, and the difference is based on whether or not a person believes in Jesus Christ.

Friends, God’s testimony about man and Jesus Christ is that we are all sinners deserving God’s wrath and that Jesus Christ came into the world to offer himself as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of everyone who will repent and trust in Christ alone. And we must understand that rejecting that testimony, that gracious offer of salvation, is a terrible sin. It isn’t just mass murderers and others who are guilty of what we consider to be serious crimes who are worthy of God’s condemnation, everyone is worthy of God’s condemnation, and those who reject God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ remain condemned, there is no other way of being saved.

But we also need to temper our understanding of this radical difference between the two groups of people by what we are told elsewhere in Scripture. On the one hand, there is a clear and sharp distinction between those who believe in Jesus Christ and those who do not. In fact, unbelievers are referred to as wicked, and being in darkness, and followers of Satan, all of which agrees with what we are told elsewhere in the Bible.

But on the other hand, we must remember that, as Paul wrote in Romans 3:22-23, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. In other words, those who trust in Christ were initially no different. We were no better. We have been saved by grace alone, not because of anything we have done, will do, or even could do. In other words, we are the unworthy recipients of God’s gracious promises.

So, going back to 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul is listing the promises, he goes on to say, in Verses 16-18, “For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’ ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”

These promises boggle the mind! God says that he will live with us and walk among us, he will be our God, and we will be his people. Now, of course, God is the only true god, he created all things, and in that sense he is God to everyone. But Paul is speaking about something much more profound than that. He is speaking about a special relationship; God will live with us and walk among us. And Paul makes that special relationship very clear when he says, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” Christians are God’s chosen, redeemed, and adopted sons and daughters. He is our heavenly Father, and we can call him Abba. We were unbelievers, enemies of God, destined for hell. But because he chose to save us, he promises to walk with us and to be our Father.

These are the great promises that cause Paul to draw the conclusion he does in our verse; that we should pursue holiness. And we can go back one step and ask what it is that makes some people believers and, therefore, the recipients of these promises, when others refuse to believe? Given the fact, as I noted earlier, that there is no difference, that believers were no better in themselves than unbelievers, what causes some people to believe while others do not?

The answer is that salvation is a gift of God as Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9. We do not earn our salvation. The difference is not anything in the person who lays hold of these promises, nor in anything that person has done, the difference is God’s electing love, his grace. As Pastor Broderick preached two weeks ago, salvation does not depend on human effort or merit, it is a free gift of God’s grace.

But no one is able to accept this gift and claim the promises unless and until his fundamental nature is changed. God must do the mighty work of causing a person to be born again. Only then is the person able to confess, “Jesus is Lord” and be saved. Prior to new birth, we are controlled by our sinful minds and, as Paul tells us in Romans 8:7-8, “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” Or, as Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3 & 5, no one can see or enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

But, praise God, when a person has been born again, he sees his great need and lays hold of God’s promises, beginning with the promise given in Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

And so, when Paul speaks of the promises of God in our verse, we must realize that not only the promises themselves, but also the ability to receive them, are all the result of God’s mercy, his free grace given to his chosen people. His people can claim no credit whatsoever for their salvation. We must humbly acknowledge that our salvation is entirely due to God’s grace alone.

And that is why in the midst of quoting the promises, Paul included the statement in 2 Corinthians 6:17, where he said, “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

In other words, those whom God has chosen to save, those in whom he has worked the miracle of new birth, and those who, as a result of that miracle, have declared “Jesus is Lord”, are to be separate from the world. We were no different before, but we have been set apart by God, consecrated by him to be his chosen people, and if that is true of us, we must live in a way that is different from the world. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” And new creations cannot continue to live the same old lives.

But we must remember that we were all born with the same sinful nature as every unbeliever. We should not feel superior or look down on them as if we have earned our privileged status. Christians are the recipients of God’s free gift of salvation and should be incredibly grateful and loving, desiring to lead others to Christ so that they can enjoy the same blessings. There is no room for personal pride. We can and should be proud of our God and Savior, but not of ourselves. The modern idea of the importance of self esteem is part of the dirt that we need to shake off.

But, before we move on to look at the rest of our verse, I want to point out that the value of a promise depends on the person making the promise. We have all known people who are reliable and who, when they make a promise, will work hard to fulfil it. But I suspect we have also all known people whose promises aren’t worth much. But, in either case, human beings are finite and fallible and no matter how good their intentions and efforts are, they are not always able to fulfill all they have promised.

In this case, however, the promises come from the Creator of all things, the only perfectly holy, almighty, all-knowing God, who cannot lie and whose will cannot be thwarted. It is absolutely certain that God’s promises will come true. Even the great man of God Moses questioned God’s ability to provide meat for his people in the desert. But it doesn’t matter whether we can see a way for God to accomplish his promises or not. God’s arm is not too short, he will carry out all that he has promised (Numbers 11:13)

And it is this certainty, along with the tremendous privilege of having been chosen by God for salvation, that obligates all who receive those promises, to listen carefully to Paul’s admonition.

Therefore, my second point is that Paul calls us to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit.

II.           Purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit

Or, as the ESV puts it, we are to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit”. To defile something is to corrupt it, to make it dirty, to violate its purity, to dishonor it. And sin has done that to every aspect of God’s creation.

God’s original creation must have been glorious beyond imagination and, even though every aspect of that creation has been tainted by the effects of sin, the beauty is still evident, even though that beauty is only seen through the corruption and decay caused by human sin.

We see this in every aspect of creation, the inanimate just as much as the animate. Trees still produce fruit, the soil still produces plants that are good to eat, but the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field are sometimes spoiled by diseases or pests, crops are sometimes ruined by drought or severe weather, and everywhere we see weeds, thorns and other undesirable things mixed in with what is good.

But, of course, in the context of the verse we are examining, Paul is not speaking about the effect of sin on the inanimate creation, he is, rather, speaking about moral filth. And we see that all around us in our age, just as much as the Corinthians did in their time. Lying, deceiving, stealing, envy, arrogance, selfishness, improper hatred, murder, sexual immorality – these things are common in the world. And they all constitute filth, which defiles us. And, even worse, they are all in us as well – they are part of our sinful nature.

You can’t walk around in a field of dirt and not get some dirt on you. And, in the same way, we can’t live in this world and not get dirty from the immorality that surrounds us. And that immorality can seep in over time without our noticing it. If you spend enough time around a particular odor, for example, you stop noticing it. And that can be very dangerous. If we are completely comfortable in this sinful world, if we don’t find ourselves offended on a regular basis by the sin around us and in us, there is a serious problem; we are becoming acclimated to it. And that is very dangerous.

Therefore, we need to cleanse ourselves. We need to look for the ways in which the immorality of this world has crept into our own thinking and living and we need to consciously shake off that dirt. And we must look for the ways in which our own sinful nature still influences our thinking and shake that off as well. We must continually remember that our ultimate home is with God in heaven and that heaven is the home of righteousness. We cannot be there and be covered in dirt. God cannot bear to have sin in his presence. And so, we need to be vigilant to be being transformed all through life. We must recognize that we are not holy now, and seek to be holy.

The fact that God’s people must be holy is a constant refrain all through the Scriptures. For example, in Leviticus 11:45 we are told that God said, “I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.” And in Leviticus 20:26 God said, “You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” And just as the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt and called to be God’s chosen people, so Christians have been freed from their slavery to sin and have been called to be God’s children.

The prophet Joel speaks about the coming of the Day of the Lord, when God will judge all peoples, and in Joel 3:17 he speaks about those whom God has chosen to save and he tells us that God said, “Then you will know that I, the LORD your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her.” And the church, comprising all true Christians, is the heavenly Jerusalem; it must be holy.

And this call to holiness is not just an Old Testament theme. In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul addresses his letter to, “the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy”. And in speaking about our eternal election in Ephesians 1:4, Paul wrote, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” Then, in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, in a section instructing the people how to live to please God, Paul wrote that “God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” And in Hebrews 12:24 we are told to, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” And the apostle Peter tells us the same thing. In 1 Peter 1:15 he wrote, “just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do”.

Brothers and sisters, there are many more verses I could cite, but this is enough to emphasize the point that holiness is not optional. It is not something that only some “super” Christians need to pursue, or that is only expected of pastors. If we have been born again, we are new creations in Christ Jesus and there should be an inner desire to be rid of all our sins and to walk in obedience to God’s commands. We are told in Romans 8:29 that “those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Think about that statement. God has predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. And we are told in Hebrews 4:15 that Jesus was without sin. He was perfect. That is the standard to which we should aspire.

In Ephesians 5:1-5 we are told, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” And it goes on in that passage to give instructions to husbands and says, in Verses 25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

Christ gave himself to make the church, the people of God, holy and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. And we must cooperate in that work; that is the process of progressive sanctification, and it is not optional. We are to be imitators of God. We must shake off the moral dirt of this world and of our sinful nature.

And, going back to our verse in 2 Corinthians, notice that it says we are to, “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit”; the effects of the immorality around us is not just skin deep, it goes down to the depths of our being, our spirit. And our own sinful nature also wells up from the depths of our being. Jesus said, in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

In other words, we can’t just avoid immoral actions, we must cleanse and guard our hearts as well. We must examine our thinking and our feelings and work to ensure that they are obedient to God’s will. A grudging outward obedience is not acceptable. And so, we come to my third point, which is the next part of our verse, we to be perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

III.          Perfecting holiness out of reverence for God

Or, as the ESV puts it, which again follows the original Greek more closely, we are to be “bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God”.

If we have been born again, then God has already begun the work by making a radical change in our inner nature. But he has not completely removed our sin, he has not yet completed the work. Christians are a mixture. We have the old sinful nature still in us, and it is at war with the new nature. Therefore, we have a job to do, and it is a job that requires constant effort all of life because it is never complete in this life. We are to be “bringing holiness to completion”; it is a continuous activity throughout all of life.

The word holiness has two senses. First, it means to be separate, set aside or consecrated for a specific purpose. And, second, it refers to moral purity. And both senses are important and related. We are to be separate from the world in the sense that we oppose all that is opposed to God. And that is what sin is at its core, rebellion against God. We must oppose that and stand apart from it. And we must also strive for moral purity, which is to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, who is perfectly pure.

And we are to do this “in the fear of God”. The NIV says out of reverence for God, which is fine as far as it goes, but the Greek word used is fear. People shy away from that word in our time because we quite reasonably think of fearing something that is dangerous or even evil in some way. Now God is obviously not evil, he is, in fact, the exact opposite. He is entirely, perfectly, and immutably good. But he is dangerous! He is dangerous because he is perfectly holy, he knows all things, and he is all powerful. Therefore, if you are a sinner, and we are all sinners, he is, in fact, very dangerous.

Therefore, we should have a reverential fear of God. It is reverential because we recognize that he is good; in fact, he defines what is good. But there is also a real fear because he knows everything we have ever thought, said, or done and he must punish sin. Which means that our sins, your sin and my sin, must be punished. It would be unjust for God to simply ignore our sin.

But, praise God, this is where his amazing love comes to our rescue. Because God chose to save some sinners, he sent the second person of the Holy Trinity to become incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth. And this Jesus, the unique God-man, lived a perfect life in fulfillment of God’s law on behalf of his people and then willingly gave his life as an atoning sacrifice to pay for their sins. Hallelujah! Our sins are paid for, but not by us.

And that should always cause us to both tremble at the thought of the punishment we deserve and to simultaneously rejoice at the amazing love of Christ that bore our punishment for us. That reverential fear should then motivate us to work at living holy lives every day. We do so as children desiring to please their heavenly Father and as new creations hating and wanting to be rid of the sin that still lives in us. In addition to reverential fear, we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength because of his great mercy. And this love should also motivate us to live holy lives.

It is very important to note that God calls us to be separate and to live holy lives, but he does not call us to remove ourselves from the world and try to have as little interaction with it as possible. In fact, our being different and living holy lives is meant to make our testimony about Jesus all the more attractive and compelling. That is why Jesus told his disciples in John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And in Philippians 2:14-16 Paul commanded us to, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life”. Brothers and sisters, we are to live holy lives in order to shine like stars and to hold out the word of life; in other words, to share the gospel.

We are to be godly examples to the world at all times, especially in difficult circumstances. Consider, for example, the command Paul gives to Titus. In Titus 2:9-10, he wrote, “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” Think about that. How difficult would it be to be a slave? And yet, they are called to have their good behavior be a witness to their masters.

The bottom line is that holiness is extremely important. If you don’t desire to be rid of sin and to live a holy life, then you have not been born again, you are not a new creation in Christ Jesus. And, if you have been born again, not only do you have a desire to live a holy life and to please God, but you are commanded by God to do so. Therefore, let us shake off the dirt of modern pseudo-Christianity and its claim that you can go on living like the world and be saved. Let us believe God’s word and “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling” as Paul commands us in Philippians 2:12. And we do that by cleansing “ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God”.

And now let’s spend a few minutes looking at practical ways to go about perfecting holiness.

IV.          Application: How to perfect holiness

I have eight points of application:

• The first thing we must do is to be completely convinced that holiness is necessary and desirable. We do that by looking into God’s word. And, as I have already shown briefly, his word is clear. Holiness is not optional. And then, being convinced of this fact, we must consciously decide to pursue holiness all of life.
• The second thing we must do is examine ourselves carefully in the light of God’s word to see what specific changes we need to make. We must examine ourselves regularly and carefully, and we must be willing to listen to others, especially those who know us best and those whom God has placed over us in the Lord. Sometimes it is very hard to see the dirt we have picked up and others can see it better and help us. And this is something we must do throughout life because the longer we travel on this narrow way of salvation, the more sin becomes evident to us and the better our understanding of God’s word becomes. This process will not end in this life. We are only perfected when we die. But we must pursue perfection as long as we have breath.
• And, third, in order to perfect, or complete, holiness, we must know what holiness looks like. We find that in the word of God. He defines what is good and what is sin. We must work to conform our ideas to his word. Therefore, we must study the Bible, which is God’s word. Not just read it, but read it carefully, over and over again until it becomes part of us. And read good commentaries and systematic theologies, study the history and learn how to really understand what you read. Pay careful attention to the preached word and to the teaching in Sunday School. Listen to your elders, your parents and to godly authorities. The more you study God’s word, the more you will see how far short we all fall from meeting God’s standard and the more you will see what you need to change.
• Fourth, we must pray. Pray for God to show us our sin. Pray for God to enable us to understand, remember and obey his word. And pray for God to lead us every step of the way. This is a critically important component of holy living. We need to spend quiet time with God. To listen to what he has to say in his word, and to express our desires and thanksgiving. It is true that God knows everything before you say anything, but that is no reason to not pray. God commands us to pray. And it is a means of grace. We must pray for the Holy Spirit to guide and empower us. It is for our benefit! Proper prayer draws us out of ourselves and causes us to think of others and to pray for their needs. And God has ordained prayer as one of the means to accomplish his purposes. We are told in James 5:16 that “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
• The fifth thing we should do is to have regular fellowship with good Christians. Iron sharpens iron and we are called to comfort, love, and encourage one another. We need each other. The Christian life can be very hard. We are opposed by the world, the flesh and the devil. We get tired and discouraged. But that is why God places us in a local church. We dare not ignore this great blessing and try to live a solo Christian life, it will lead to unnecessary pain and suffering. We must live transparently and help one another along the way.
• Sixth, we must recognize that our pleasure is not the measure of whether a given thought or action is good; nor is our conscience an infallible guide, it must be trained by the word of God. God’s plan is to give us a glorious eternity; it is not focused on this life. We may experience many legitimate pleasures, but they should not be our goal. And our troubles, which may be many and difficult, should not discourage us. We must have an eternal perspective. And we must know that God’s purpose is the manifestation of his own glory, which, I might add, is the best possible purpose for creation. If you buy into this world’s ideas and think that God’s purpose should be to make this life as enjoyable as possible for everyone, then it is blatantly obvious that God has failed in spectacular fashion. But that is not God’s purpose, the world’s thinking is wrong.
• Seventh, not only can we not let our pleasure or our conscience be our guide, but we must also not believe that our thinking is the ultimate standard. We can’t redefine God’s will because we think we know what is “fair” or “kind” or any other standard we may want to apply. We have all seen the signs around town saying, “Love is love”. And we know the point they are trying to make. But that point elevates human feelings and ideas to the ultimate standard, rather than God’s word. We must shake off all such dirt and submit ourselves to God’s standards. And that leads to my eighth and final point of application.
• We must not confuse sappy sentimentality with true, biblical love. True love for someone does what is best for that person. And when a person is living a sinful life, what is best is to point him or her to God’s law, his coming judgment, and the forgiveness that is available in the Lord Jesus Christ. Most people will reject the gospel, but we must love people enough to tell them what it is they most need to hear.

Therefore, let us all see the importance of living a holy life and let us all seriously pursue that life out of reverential fear and great love for God. Let us join with King David, who wrote in Psalm 29:2, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” Amen