“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT
Paul wrote that the believers in Corinth were chosen and called by God for a specific purpose – they are to be His holy people. Paul went on to write how this was going to happen, “He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus” and, this is the good bit, “just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours”. So Paul wrote that all believers everywhere are “God’s holy people“, and that includes us pilgrims, nearly two thousand years after Paul put pen to paper (actually, he probably dictated his letter to his “brother Sosthenes” who theologians think was his scribe, or at least had some part in crafting the letter).
So what does it mean to be one of God’s own holy people? In some translations, we read the letter was addressed to those, “sanctified in Christ Jesus”, using a word with a special meaning for Christians – to be sanctified is to be set apart for God. This happens when someone becomes born again, that point when they become a believer and follower of Jesus. In His High priestly prayer, Jesus said about His disciples, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:16-17). There is only one Source of absolute truth, God Himself, so it is only He with the authority to make anything holy. But being sanctified is not just a New Testament experience. The Israelites were also commanded to be such in Leviticus 20:7-8, “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you“. The Jews were a people set apart for God, and it is remarkable that through millennia, God’s people still exists intact as a distinct nation. The Bible sets out a number of things set apart, or “sanctified” for God’s purposes, not just His people. We read about the items used during the sacrifices in the Temple, for example. But in this world, there is a distinction between worldliness and Godliness, and this is something we pilgrims work hard to honour. We must remember who our Father in Heaven is and be clear about what that means. “So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters” (Hebrews 2:11). There is something precious and very important about being in God’s family and with Jesus as our older brother.
Another outworking of being sanctified involves our physical bodies. I regularly see people, mainly younger ones, looking after the physical fitness of their bodies, as they jog and run around our parks and streets. Others frequent the gyms that seem to have sprung up everywhere, that offer a variety of pieces of equipment, all designed to develop and strengthen our muscles. Nothing wrong with any of that, but sadly people also use their bodies for things that are not quite so honouring to God. Paul warned the Corinthian church about the importance of their bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body“. These verses are the conclusion to a passage referring to the practice, rife in Corinth at that time, of people using the services of prostitutes. But it is not just the physical act of prostitution that is wrong but also any practices that head in that direction, such as the use of pornography. We are set apart from the world and all its temptations and practices, as a holy people, saved and sanctified in accordance with God’s will.
“God invites us sinners to come to Him “just as we are” and receive His mercy and forgiveness. When we are saved, the Holy Spirit begins His amazing work of transforming us into the image and likeness of Christ. To be sanctified means that God loves us too much to let us stay the same” (quote from gotquestions.org). It is a serious business being a believer and follower of Christ. Peter wrote, ” … for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy”” (1 Peter 2:9-10). As God’s people we have attained royal status and that has responsibilities. We don’t live in the way that we used to. The stark contrast between the two kingdoms is clearly set out by Paul in Ephesians 4:21-24, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy”. The good news is that the Holy Spirit, working within us, undertakes the process of cleaning up our lives and sanctifying us, but we have to co-operate with Him. He works through those gentle whispers, those pricks from our consciences, those verses we read in His Word, all the while helping us to see that what we might be doing is sinful, and not appropriate behaviour for someone who is a child of God. Thankfully, God in His mercy, doesn’t set out a detailed list of rules and regulations that we have to follow all from day one. It takes a lifetime, and more, to become holy as God wants us to be. His grace prevails every day.
So we pilgrims stay close to God and His thoughts and ways. Paul wrote, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Retraining our minds to only think thoughts that are sanctified is a challenge, but it is a challenge we much accept. In our own strength we don’t have a hope, but with the Holy Spirit’s help, we cannot fail.
Dear Father God. You are the amazing God who graciously and lovingly helps us through our perilous days on this planet and in this life. It is help that we need but through Jesus we have all we need. Thank You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 