Central Truth

Belief allows us to become holy; trust allows us to become sanctified. 

Reflections

Some of you guys may remember a few years back when Gallup conducted a poll to determine the extent of Christianity among Americans, the results of which identified just over 80% of those polled as Christians. I more or less remember being encouraged by this information when I first heard it - after all 80% seemed like an unexpectedly big number.

Apparently Mr. Gallup subsequently dug a little deeper into his own findings in an effort to find out the level of spirituality among those who profess to be Christians. One of his follow up poll questions was whether they knew who spoke the Sermon on the Mount, to which only 40% responded that they did (the answer is Jesus, in case you’re among the 60% polled who didn’t know). His later findings also revealed that less than 10% of those who claim to be Christian possess a (quote) “high spiritual faith”.

It seems to me that this particular disconnect between belief (or professed belief) and transformation is what Paul is addressing in his letter to the Thessalonians. Paul exhorts his constituents to move beyond our justification through Christ, and wishes upon us the sanctification that comes from being in relationship with Christ. As believers we all wear the cloak of righteousness and are holy and blameless in His sight, but the Lord desires for us to become more in His likeness in our daily walk. This is not something that happens in our own strength, but in order to allow Him to accomplish this through us we have to surrender to the process. And as I am painfully aware, sanctification is indeed a process. Through the simple (yet often difficult) act of surrendering, our desire for God’s will for our lives increases, we begin to hate sin and love God, and we long to obey.  

So it would seem that a believer in pursuit of sanctification is (sadly) a bit rarer of a commodity than suggested by Gallup’s initial poll results.  But (thankfully) it’s probably not as rare as men who like to shop. 

Discussion Questions

1. What is the one thing (habit, possession, thought pattern, addiction, etc.) that may be hindering your own sanctification process?

2. If so, what is it you feel is stopping you down from surrendering it to the Lord? Perhaps it’s because God is a deified killjoy whose goal is to deny you all pleasure? 

3. Ok, He’s not and you know that.  He has something so much better for you than what you are holding on to.  Step out in faith brothers and sisters!

4. Extra credit: download "Perfect Circle" by R.E.M.  It has nothing to do with this passage but it’s a really cool song by the world’s greatest band.