This is something I've been chewing on for a few months now.  I'll start by asking a question.  Do you ever feel like there's a spiritual block, even when there isn't any indwelling sin and you're spending quality time in the Word each day? That's been the case for me, and I really wanted to figure out why.  So, I started thinking about who I consider to be godly and what is different in their lives from mine.

I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't reading my Bible, being active in church, loving to talk theology, or any other "good" thing that makes a person godly.  Godliness (the living out of holiness) is found in a person's consistency down to the most minuscule thought or action.

Defining Holiness

Holiness is two-sided.  It's a separation from sin and a consecration to God.  In my experience, it's a lot easier to separate from sin (i.e. putting an internet filter on the computer), but consecrating ourselves to God requires so much more effort and the implications are usually more than what we want to deal with.  So, we become lukewarm Christians in this limbo of holiness.

Implications of Holiness

Horatius Bonar says,

Holiness…extends to every part of our persons, fills up our being, spreads over our life, influences everything we are, or do, or think, or speak, or plan, small or great, outward or inward, negative or positive, our loving, our hating, our sorrowing, our rejoicing, our recreations, our business, our friendships, our relationships, our silence, our speech, our reading, our writing, our going out and our coming in - our whole man in every movement of spirit, soul, and body.

Reading your Bible is good, it is the source of knowledge for how to live out holiness; but it is our responsibility to intentionally apply that knowledge to every area of our life.  Do you want to get over that spiritual block?  Holiness is what "gives vitality, purpose, meaning, and direction to daily living" (Thomas Watson).  The problem is that we see a verse like Philippians 4:8 that says whatever is excellent....think on these things or Ephesians 4:29 that says we should only say things that are building up, and we think (subconsciously) to ourselves, "That's a good guideline and it'll be good when I do that sometimes, but if everything I do is excellent or building up, that means I couldn't do or say xyz." And there ends the thought process, and we move on in life because we don't want to accept how much change we'd actually have to make in our lives.

Application of Holiness

"Glorifying God is an intentional pursuit. We don't accidentally drift into holiness; rather, we mature gradually and purposefully, one choice at a time." (Anonymous)

Intentional living is paramount when it comes to holiness. It's taking the Bible literally and radically conforming ourselves to it.  When you start radically conforming to Scripture, it is so revitalizing as you begin to feel a fulfillment in your spiritual life.

Let me warn you, though.  Radical conformity to Scripture does not come without the cost of discipleship.  You must be able in comparison to your love for Christ "hate [your] father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even [your] own life" because you will face opposition from even those closest to you, and you must be ready to sever those relationships for the sake of Christ and your personal holiness.  The Bible says in Luke 14:28, "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not s first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?"  Don't get all "gong ho" about living holy without first realizing how much it will cost and prayerfully begin to make the needed changes in your life.

Hopefully you're getting the picture here.  I've listed some biblical principles that I hope will help you evaluate your life and see where you stand in your relationship to Christ.

• Compassion - Mark 1:41
• Love - Colossians 3:13
• Unselfishness - Romans 15:3
• Indignation of sin - Matthew 23
• Prayer - Hebrews 5:7
• Speech - Ephesians 4:29, 5:4; Colossians 4:6; James 3
  
• Humility - Philippians 2:5-13
• Media - 1 Corinthians 15:33; Philippians 4:8
  

That list is by no means exhaustive, but now let's hear from you.  What other areas are there? What verses do you use?