Going on to perfection

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.” -Isaiah 1:16-17 (NKJV)

These verses clearly expose the nature of our heart i.e. we naturally do what is not pleasing to God; doing "good" however has to be learnt. In short we will not serve the Lord if we just let our lives happen. Having confessed Him as Lord we need to (out of relationship with Him) actively clean up our lives and seek after righteousness. Now that might sound onerous but we also have 2 Corinthians 5:17, which states "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." In other words after desiring to be in Christ, He does the rest. As such we no longer need to strive to achieve this. As our Lord says in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Just one more encouragement, and in light of Hebrews 10:25, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Let's keep on encouraging each other in the Lord by sharing with each other the things that He reveals to us, thereby provoking each other to love and good works as we hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering (paraphrase Hebrews 10:23-25).