Our top priority should be to pursue and perfect Holiness in our walk!
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6:
16 What friendship does God’s temple have with demons? For indeed, we are the Temple of the living God, just as God has said: I will make My home in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
17 For this reason, “Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord. “Touch nothing that is unclean, and I will embrace you.
18 I will be a True Father to you, and you will be My Beloved sons and daughters,” says the Lord YAHWEH Almighty.
7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God.
In other Words: Beloved ones, with promises like these, and because of our deepest respect and worship of God, we must remove everything from our lives that contaminates body and spirit and continue to complete the development of Holiness within us.
FATHER has given us seven promises in the above passage. As we submit to HIS Word and decisively cleanse ourselves from all contaminates both the body and spirit, we will complete the development of Holiness within us. This will in turn qualify us as being counted as the elect, the Bride of Christ.
As a type and shadow, the temple in the Old Testament was to be Holy. GOD stipulated that everything connected with His earthly dwelling place must be Holy. The materials that composed the tabernacle were dedicated to God, separated from common, ordinary use, and thus made Holy. The priests who ministered in the tabernacle had to be consecrated and made Holy. Their garments had to be Holy garments. Everything connected with the worship of a Holy God had to be Holy. There was no exception. Anything sinful, anything that defiled, any contact with the unclean, the common, or the secular was barred from His Holy Presence.
As Paul stated above, perfecting Holiness will result in and confirm that we are truly walking in The Fear of THE LORD. The word “perfecting” means: to finish, to complete, to fulfill. This is accomplished through the sanctifying power of The Holy Spirit. It begins with salvation, then sanctification, and finally glorification.
With this understanding, let us contemplate what Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 12:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect Will of God.
Paul also wrote by The Holy Spirit in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3:
18 We can all draw close to Him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into His Very Image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord, Who is the Spirit.
As Paul noted, it is a process in pursuing Holiness just as Jesus is Holy. With this Holiness comes power and authority from Heaven. We truly become Christ-life in our walk. Paul would not have written this if we were unable to achieve Holiness and the Fear of The Lord in our walk.
The fear of God is twofold.
First, it is recognizing who God is and responding with a genuine fear to displease or disobey Him, knowing that He is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28-29; Psa. 2:11).
Second, it is the conscious choice to adopt God’s attitude toward sin (remember that He hates it and has no tolerance toward it: Prov. 8:13; 23:17), and to demonstrate such an attitude toward sin by choosing only the things that please God (Prov. 1:29; Jer. 2:19; Psa. 34:11).
We have lost our fear of disobeying God, and as a result we make little progress in bringing Holiness to completion! We have stressed God’s Love, mercy and forgiveness so much and soft-peddled the important role of Godly Fear with the sad result of losing a Biblical balance of Truth.
Without the “Fear of the Lord” in our lives, we become careless in our attitudes and actions. We are emboldened to ignore His commandments. We are enabled to excuse sin in our lives, or label what God calls sin as weakness or simply human infirmities. We rejoice in forgiveness but have little appetite for perfecting Holiness.
He hates sin and so should we. We are to Love the sinner as Jesus did, but not his sin. We must no longer walk in a compromised manner.