Are you relevant? – part. 1 Thessalonians 4:7, Peter 1:15-16

"Modern Christians seem more afraid of appearing uncool than of being unholy. Instead we should fear being irrelevant to a world in need."

- Randy Alcorn

Alcorn follows up the quote above by saying this: "The world needs to see true followers of Jesus, not people whose only difference is church attendance." The truth is that when our lives don't reflect holiness, they don't reflect Christ to this world. We can't live however we want and expect to make a difference in Jesus' name. We can fool ourselves in to thinking this. However, the truth is that if we are living like the rest of the world - the world will never see Jesus. They may see us being cool or likeable but do those things don't truly point people to Jesus?

Let’s be honest about this holiness thing –none of us has it all figured out. But the good thing is we don’t have too. It’s Jesus that makes us holy! It is not by our own understanding or actions or goodness that we gain our holiness. That’s the good news! However, just like a runner we should all be striving (or "pressing on") together towards living out holiness. Just like striving to get to the finish line of a race. To do this we must truly desire for our sinfulness to die and for Christ to live in us and be seen in us in a greater way. Point blank – Christ’s holiness is meant to be lived out and displayed in our lives. Scripture continuously backs this up in a very explicit way.1 Thessalonians 4:7 teaches us that we are called to live out holiness: “for God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life." As we look further into Scripture we see that our holiness is defined by our behaviors. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says "but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

The pursuit of holiness is so vitally important as we strive to be true followers of Jesus. If we aren't living out holiness, we will not be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. If we aren’t those things, then we truly are irrelevant in this world we live in. This world needs Christians who are truly letting Jesus live out His holiness in them. This world needs a church that isn’t letting it’s light or it’s salt become meaningless and useless because of sin and un-holiness. So here is the question: Are you relevant? More next week.