Articles
Holy UNTO The LORD - 1 Cor. 10
Holy UNTO The LORD - 1 Cor. 10
We need to comprehend the importance of holiness UNTO God. We often think of ‘holiness’, the being set apart, as being set apart FROM things: we have been set apart from worldliness, immorality, lewdness, sin, etc. Being set apart also has a positive aspect in that we were set apart UNTO and FOR God.
Paul has thus written to ‘those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling” (1:2). Churches are ‘churches of the saints’ (14:33). In being the church, we are the temple of God, which is holy temple (from the same word that we get saint and sanctified from) (3:17). To be concerned about things that belong to the Lord is to be concerned with how to be holy both in body and spirit (1Cor. 7:34).
It is for the glory of God that we were saved, called, and now live FOR Him! ”Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
We have been set apart to be HIS PEOPLE, a people of HIS OWN possession and choosing with the purpose of proclaiming HIS EXCELLENCIES. Thus we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9) We have been set apart as “living stones, being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, TO offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1Pet. 2:5).
We now live FOR Him, realizing that all things have been created through Him and FOR Him (Col. 1:16).
We now live FOR righteousness having become “servants of righteousness” and now we “present our bodies as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Rom. 6:18-19).
We now live FOR SERVICE: Paul served God in his spirit in the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 1:9). We have been freed from the law so that we serve in newness of the Spirit (Rom. 7:6). We are to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom. 12:11). We have been called unto freedom and hence “through love we serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).
Or broadly stated: we now live to glorify God in everything we are and do (1Cor. 10:31). Are your thoughts centered on what you can not do now that you are a Christian? Or are you ‘positively’ serving the Lord?
Hugh DeLong
