Living as Saints: A Call to Holiness

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The Christian must never be content merely with grasping principles; he must grasp principles and he must start with principles. So much of the trouble, it seems to me, in the church today is due to the fact that people don't grasp principles. They miss the wood because of the trees. [00:01:48]

Every part of our life is to be governed by our Christian principles and by our Christian faith. Everything, you notice how the Apostle comes down to details, and he covers the whole of life. We must never lose sight of the fact that the ultimate object of Christianity is that we should be holy. [00:02:28]

The Apostle here was not trying to reform the world; he was writing to Christians. These words are addressed to members of the church at Ephesus and other churches. This is not general moral advice to the world outside; these words are addressed to Christians. [00:05:38]

Covetousness means, of course, love of money. Love of money partly for itself and partly because of what it can do for us, the things we can buy with money, the things we can procure with money, the things we can do if we've got money. The love of all that money represents and can achieve. [00:07:51]

The Christian's talk must never be empty; it mustn't be senseless, must never be frivolous. The Christian man should never be a frivolous person, and he should never speak in a frivolous and a light, vapid, empty manner. It's so typical of the other life, but it's got nothing to do with this life. [00:11:53]

The whole art, the whole strategy of Christian living is to watch temptation at the beginning. If you let temptation get the slightest foothold in you, you're more or less finished. It's the preliminary onslaught that you are to meet. That's why he says let it not be so much as named amongst you. [00:22:04]

The Christian is one who is to express joy and happiness in his life. He's a man who's got a profound sense of gratitude to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ within him. He's a man who wants to be giving thanks. So we must get rid of all notions of dullness. [00:26:37]

The Christian speech must always be thoughtful. The Christian is a man who started thinking. So much of the other life is thoughtless, like a bubble, but the Christian speech is thoughtful. People should always feel somewhat better from having spoken to us; they should have gathered something. [00:31:31]

The Christian never calls attention to himself; he doesn't monopolize the conversation. The better the Christian, the better he is as a listener. But you watch that sort of person in a circle, man or woman, always trying to keep the whole conversation, wanting to be the object of interest. [00:33:42]

The Christian is never a man who tries to be funny. That's the thing that must go right out. He never does it simply in order to impress or to call attention to himself or to cut a figure or to be the center of interest in a conversation. [00:36:42]

Covetousness is idolatry, and there is no more terrible or horrible sin than idolatry. It means that you make a god of something, and you worship that god. Anything that you and I tend to set up as the big thing, the central thing in our lives, is an idol. [00:41:14]

We are saints, set apart for God, meant to live to him and his glory, to worship and to praise him alone. Let us ever remember that, and remembering it, let us realize that certain things are incompatible with it and that we are to renounce them forever. [00:46:05]

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