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

by J.C. Ryle

It is a sad fact that constant worldly prosperity, as a general rule, is harmful to a believer’s soul. We cannot stand it. Sickness, losses, crosses, anxieties, and disappointments seem absolutely necessary to keep us humble, watchful, and spiritual-minded. They are as needful as the pruning knife to the vine and the refiner’s furnace to the gold. They are not pleasant to flesh and blood. We do not like them, and we often do not see their meaning. No chastening at present seems to be cause for joy, but rather for grief; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). When we reach heaven, we will find that it all worked out for our good.