Promises

2 Cor. 7:1

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. 

Since we have what promises? As I look back to the preceding chapter, I read, we are the temple of God...I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people...I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. What unbelievable promises are these! Who could ask for anything more? God Himself will dwell among His people. We shall become sons and daughters to God Almighty. What a transformation! Truly we have been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the Beloved Son.

But in light of these promises, believers need to cleanse all sin of the body and spirit. Sin is heinous to God. It violates all that He is and seeks to do us in. We need to have His attitude toward our sin, to be repulsed, to find sin abhorrent. God has called us to holiness which is competed in the fear of God. What is holiness? Realizing and living like the new creation that we have become, living like an ambassador for Christ, living like the love of Christ constrains us, living like we are groaning for our heavenly dwelling, living like we are always hopeful, living like the pain in this life is a momentary light affliction preparing us for the eternal weight of glory, living like our jars of clay show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us, living like the light of God is shining out of our lives, living like we are being transformed into the image of the Son from one degree of glory to another, living like we are free in the Spirit, living like our sufficiency is from the Lord, living like we are the aroma of Christ to God to the saved and the unsaved,  living like all the promises of God are Yes in Him,  and living like God's seal is upon us through the Spirit our guarantee. How rich is this book! So much to realize and apply!

Father,

Grow me in these great truths and promises. Help them to flow out of me like they should. Thank You for making me Your child and for transforming my life.

In His name,

Amen