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

by J.C. Ryle

Many who have “hope” that they are God’s children and have true grace, however weak, are continually perplexed with doubts in points of practice. “Should we do such and such a thing? Should we give up this family custom? Should we go into that group of people? How should we draw the line about visiting? What is to be the standard of our entertainment and how we dress? Are we never, under any circumstances, to dance, never to touch a card, and never to attend parties of pleasure?” These are the kinds of questions that seem to give them constant trouble. Very often, though, the simple root of their perplexity is that they do not feel assured that they are children of God. They have not yet settled the point of which side of the gate they are on. They do not know whether they are inside the ark or not. They believe that a child of God ought to act in a certain decided way, but they wonder if they are children of God themselves. If they only felt they were so, they would go straightforward and take a decided stand, but not being sure about it, their conscience is forever hesitating and coming to a deadlock. The devil whispers, “Perhaps you are only a hypocrite; what right do you have to take a decided course? Wait until you really are a Christian.” This whisper too often turns the scale and leads to some miserable compromise or wretched conformity to the world! I believe this is one main reason why so many today are inconsistent, uncertain, unsatisfactory, and half-hearted in ...