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

by J.C. Ryle

Another sign of growth in grace is increased spirituality of taste and mind. The person whose soul is growing takes more interest in spiritual things every year. He does not neglect his duty in the world. He carries out every duty of life faithfully, diligently, and conscientiously, whether at home or abroad, but the things he loves best are spiritual things. The ways, trends, amusements, and recreations of the world have a continually decreasing place in his heart. He does not condemn them all as downright sinful or say that those who have anything to do with them are going to hell, but they have a constantly diminishing hold on his own affections and gradually seem smaller and less important in his eyes. Godly friends, habits, activities, and conversation appear of ever-increasing value to him. Do you want to know if you are growing in grace? Then look within for a greater desire for the things of God and less affection for the things of the world.

But they are thorns and temptations too