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

by J.C. Ryle

I could easily settle this question by laying down the principle that no duty established by Jesus Christ can ever be neglected without damage. I could show how many close their eyes throughout life to the nature of saving Christianity and refuse to consider what it really costs to be a Christian. I could describe how at last, when life is flowing away, they wake up and make a few erratic efforts to turn to God. I could tell you how they find, to their amazement, that repentance and conversion are not such easy matters as they had supposed, and that it costs a great deal to be a true Christian. They discover that habits of pride, sinful indulgence, love of ease, and worldliness are not as easily laid aside as they had thought. And so, after a small struggle, they give up in despair and leave the world without hope, without grace, and unfit to meet God! They had flattered themselves all their days that Christianity would be easy work when once they took it up seriously. But they open their eyes too late and discover for the first time that they are ruined because they never counted the cost.