Week 2 - Praying for Holiness

Hi Ladies,

Last week, I shared four character traits that we’ll focus our prayers on for Pastor Jason and our other elders this month. As we move from praying for love to praying for holiness, I hope you’ll see that they are not disconnected. In fact, I’d suggest that you can’t have one without the other. But let me show you from Scripture… not simply my own thoughts! 

Jesus told His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). 

John, through the Spirit, brings this point home multiple times in his writings. Here are just a few:

“Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected” (1 Jn. 2:4-5).

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 Jn. 5:2-3).

Paul connects love and holiness as well. It’s easy to miss with the chapter break, but in Ephesians 4-5, Paul tells believers that they’ve already been taught in Christ “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness….. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us” (Eph. 4:24, 5:1-2). 

Love and holiness go hand in hand. Positionally, we’re “holy and beloved” (Col. 3:12). But practically, we have to work hard by the Spirit to live this out…. Even our elders! (Titus 1:8) But the more we (they) know God and love Him, the more we want to do what pleases Him, and the more we image Christ.

An English Puritan named Thomas Watson famously said, “'Til sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” Who am I to mess with a Puritan… but I think it might be even more accurate to say the inverse: 'Til Christ be sweet, sin will not be bitter. In other words, holiness is not fundamentally about not doing bad things… or even about doing good things. It’s about being devoted to a Person - His words, His will, His way. The more we treasure Christ, the more we come to hate what He hates. Sin loses its appeal. As the song goes, “The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Holiness also does not mean sinlessness. But for the elder/under-shepherd, it means a life that is devoted to the Great Shepherd. Nearly all of the biblical elder qualifications are about character, not skill or charisma. Because God takes this seriously, we should too - not holding it over their heads in critical judgment, but rather praying specifically and consistently that our elders would be known both by God and by others as holy, devoted men.

So this week, let’s pray that our elders would be holy men of God who are devoted to the Word and to prayer (Acts 6:4), so that they know and treasure Christ above everything else and model and lead us toward this same holiness, for His glory and the good of His Bride, the Church. ❤️🙏🏼

Anna