I always thought living a Holy life was about having a loving relationship with God.

Living a holy life was worth living because it is the right thing to do.

Being obiedent to our creator is the right thing to do.

I believe all this stems back to why God even offered the choice to disobey him. His love wouldn’t be what it is without choice.

Also we don’t run from hell we run to it. Those who do not trust God don’t want him they want the alternative, a life without him.

So why should we live holy lives because those who love him and trust his love wants to.
Is this sufficient?

Antaiwan,

A good start. But you still use the existence of hell as a reason to live holy. What if hell didn’t exist…at all…period? Why then, should I live a life pleasing to God? Why is it right? Because it keeps me out of hell?

Melvin

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Hebrews 12:14

What is this scripture saying? Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. (Those who are not holy will NOT see the Lord.) I believe Paul is referring to seeing Christ upon his return.

Revelation knowledge from GOD reveals more than what meets the eye. The Christian who fails to see the Lord will miss eternal life in heaven also.

vs. 15 makes it clear that it IS possible for a Christian to fall short of God’s grace. Continued reading of the following verses reveal that bitterness and fornication “defile” a believer. God used Esau as an example for rejection by Him. Verse 25 clarifies Paul was warning the Christians to “obey God”.

I live holy for 2 reasons: 1) It’s a commandment from God (in his word)–Rom. 12:1, 1 Cor. 3:17, Eph. 1:14, Eph. 5:27, Col. 3:12, 1 Peter 1:16 2) To avoid hell and have everlasting life.–John 5:29, John 8:51, Rom. 6:22-23, Heb. 5:9, Heb. 12:14b, Rev. 22:14

Believe it or not, your “eternal destiny” is dictated by how you live your life. Those who teach contrary are not teaching a complete and accurate salvation message!

Tony,

Remember what I said in the posting. Give me a reason other than “I don’t want to go to hell.”

So the only real reason you live a holy life is because you don’t want to go to hell. Hmm. Interesting. And if there were no hell, why would you live holy? Yeah, God says to, but if there were no hell to send you to, why bother?

Melvin

This such a hard question to answer in light of what we know today.
The only person who could answer this question is Adam.
I believe it seemed natural to follow the one who made him.

Its like the story of the statue, when asked why it just stands there so still and calm it replies that because I was created to do so. Other questions follow and all the answers are based on it’s given function by it’s creator.

Love my not be involved at all, we were to walk with God and learn from him and learn to love him. Its very hard for me to believe that if adam was a perfect man he had perfect love.

I don’t see the answer to this question in the bible because we know from the fall that everything that follows deals with redemeption and a savior. but I could very well be wrong.

This question could easily fall under the free will debate among churches but thats so complicated of an issue. I’m still studying it myself.

Antaiwan,

Don’t be discouraged. The aswer is most definitely in the Bible. The result of not using the answer provided by the Bible is probably best illustrated by Tony’s response. Notice he says he falls short of God’s grace yet he is still (sometimes) saved. Apparently, he does something to get back in God’s grace. Apparently Tony is somehow able to please God purely by his behavior and is rewarded for his behavior by not being sent to hell.

Tony does what God tells him to do purely because he is afraid of the mean mean person who is going to whack him if he fails to tow the line. And as long as he lives a perfect life (at least in his own eyes), he can feel as if he has successfully earned God grace and thus held onto his salvation.

Do you see anything wrong with this approach?

Melvin

But as He which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it it written, be ye holy for I Am holy. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your goods works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. I beseech you therefore brethern by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

I believe that your manner of conversation is your “lifestyle”/the way in which you live. Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things “the old man/the old life ” are passed away behold all things are become brand new.

So, why should I live a holy life?

Answers:

1. Because He which has called you is holy.

2. For God hath not called us unto uncleaness, but unto holiness.

3. That men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

4. That you may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Jesus is Lord!!!!!

I don’t know if many of you read daily bread but todays devotional was on this subject. The link at the bottom of page.
God is Good!!

Didn’t see a link. So what did it say? Elucidate please.

Melvin

Here is the link:
http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0305/q0305.html
After reading it I’m not sure if it really answered your question Melvin.
Tell me what you think.

Nice link. It seems to cover an awful lot of the subject awfully well. I may have to shamelessly plagiarize it.

Melvin

I think the reason I should live a holy life is because God has chosen me to do so. Eph. 1:4. God’s purposes cannot be thwarted. Isa. 46:9-11. Even though in my flesh I don’t want to be holy, God is not limited by my weakness at all. Praise God! His strength is made perfect in my weakness. 2 Cor. 12:9. So I just have to pray that God, Who makes men holy, will make me holy and He will!

Mrs. Marc Jones

Melvin’s Coment: Give Mrs. Jones a gold star and congratulate her husband for being smart enough to marry her!

Makes me wonder about free will, is it ours to begin with?

Melvin’s Note: You don’t want to go there. It will only result in a headache.

I shared your question (and your kind response to my post) with my husband and here’s what he had to say:

Good answer. Although I think this guy begins with a faulty premise. IF indeed staying away from sin could keep someone out of hell, then I believe that is a GREAT reason to stay away from sin. To me, it’s like saying the death penalty is a sorry reason to stay away from committing murder. While some people might commit murder in spite of the death penalty, being executed is an EXCELLENT reason to reconsider your decision to murder someone.

But I don’t believe that staying away from sin prevents someone from going to hell. Essentially, that’s saying you can earn your salvation. People should avoid sin for the same reasons that people do a variety things that others want them to do. For example, why do you buy birthday and Christmas gifts for me? Why do you cook for me and read to me at night? You do these things because you love me and you want to make me happy. If we love God, then we should want to please Him as much as we want to please our spouses, children, and parents. We frequently do things that we would rather not do, but we do them because they make our loved ones happy. That’s why we should avoid sin, because that would make God happy. And if we love Him, wouldn’t we want to make Him happy? Didn’t Jesus say that if we loved Him we would obey his commands? Well, simple logic shows that Jesus’ statement is correct.

Melvin’s Note: Exactly right again. By the way, I was saying living holy in order to stay out of hell does nothing to grow our relationship with Christ. It would be similar to you buying your husband a birthday present because he said he would beat the tar out of you if you didn’t. Doing right simply to stay out of hell would indeed be a works based salvation. Unfortunatly, that is the only reason many people can give for living a holy life (read some of the responses). My purpose in the posting was to bring out the other side, the approach your husband spoke so well of.

The death penalty may be an excellent reason for me to not murder someone, but that punishment does nothing to encourage me to love the person I would just as soon kill. The reason I shold not kill, should not simply be becasue I will be executed. But again, I think we are saying the same thing.

Living holy is a great thing, but living holy for someone else is even better. When you live holy God will put a glow on you. Whenever you walk pass somebody they can see and feel something out of the ordinary about you. Jesus walked with authority everywhere he went. He helpred people just by talking to them, because he lived a holy life. He had power to help someone else out, and when you walk in holiness you have the power to help someone else out in their need