Sanctified Heart

1 Peter 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

The doctrine of sanctification was flush out in its current teaching by John Wesley and other circuit rider preachers in the 17th century. The teaching to live holy and blameless in Christ is a Pauline Epistle teaching given to us by the Apostle Paul in the first century, and in this scripture, Peter instructs us to be sanctified.  The idea that Christian should have a sanctified heart is not something that the earlier founders of Wesleyan conjectured from some new revelation given to them. It was a revival of God’s word, revealing to us the life that God desires all His children to live. The word sanctify shows up in scripture in many different contexts, but the root of the word is to make holy or to set apart. God desires that our heart be made holy and used for His glory. A sanctified heart does not mean that a person is perfect in their humanity, but their heart’s can be perfect before God in motives and intentions. The world will do everything to discount the life of a Christian who stands for truth and righteousness. As Christian we are to be ready to give an answer to the unbeliever, the hope of Christ that lives within us. Our witness for Christ should reflect the life of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer to live a life blameless before the world. A heart that is sanctified is not infallible to failure, but it will empower a Christian to overcome temptation and live right before God and those who are watching our walk with Christ.

Walk in Light & Darkness

 1 John 1:6,7
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not tell the truth: But if we walk in the light…
Do born again believers still sin? This is one of the divides between Calvinist and Wesleyan teachings. Books have been written for centuries on this topic. Greater minds than myself on both sides of this topic have exhausted its depth. The scripture given to us in this passage does appear that it is possible for a Christian to sin. The real question is, are Christians able to live a life without sinning? Calvintist will say that because we are born with the nature of sin, we will always sin in thought, word, or deed because we are human and not perfect. Wesleyan teaches that the work of entire sanctification, will change the natural bent to sin to a bent to live holy. That as long as we walk in the light, keep our eyes on Jesus, that we can avoid walking in darkness. The secret is to stay in the light. When we allow the temptations of the devil to deviate us from walking in the light, we find ourselves walking in darkness. It is not God’s will that we walk in darkness. It is possible to stray from the truth, but God does not give up on us. He said if we acknowledge that we have sinned, and strayed from the light, He is faithful, He is merciful, He is a God that forgives when we come to Him in broken and contrite spirit. If we willfully remain to walk in darkness, and continue in our sin, we have broken fellowship with the Father, and we are living a lie. Making mistakes due to our humanity is not sin. We still need to ask God for grace and even forgiveness when such actions are brought to our attention by the Holy Spirit. That is walking in the light.