Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

Another common cause of a lack of assurance is an inconsistent walk in life. With grief and sorrow, I feel constrained to say that I am afraid that nothing more frequently prevents people from attaining an assured hope than an inconsistent life. The stream of professing Christianity in this day is far wider than it formerly was, and I am afraid we must admit that it is also much shallower. Inconsistency of life is utterly destructive of peace of conscience. The two things are incompatible. They cannot and will not go together. If you intend to have your besetting sins and cannot make up your minds to give them up, if you will refrain from cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye when occasion requires it, then I will presume that you will have no assurance. A hesitant, undecided walk, a reluctance to take a bold and decided line, a readiness to conform to the world, an uncertain witness for Christ, a lingering tone of Christianity, and avoiding a high standard of holiness and spiritual life all make up a sure recipe for bringing an affliction upon the garden of your soul. It is useless to think that you will feel assured and persuaded of your own pardon and acceptance with God unless you regard all God’s commandments concerning all things to be right, and hate every sin, whether great or small. I have esteemed all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I have hated every false way (Psalm 119:128). One Achan allowed in the camp of your heart wil...