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

by J.C. Ryle

I do not ask whether you approve of holiness in others, whether you like to read the lives of holy people and talk of holy things and have religious books on your bookshelves, or whether you want to be holy and hope you will be holy some day. I ask something more than this: Are you yourself holy this very day, or are you not? Why do I ask so directly and so strongly? I do it because the Bible says that without holiness, no one will see the Lord. It is written. It is not my imagination. It is the Bible. It is not my personal opinion. It is the word of God, not of man, that without holiness, no one shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). What searching, examining words these are! What thoughts come across my mind as I write them down! I look at the world and see the greater part of it lying in wickedness. I look at professing Christians and see the vast majority having nothing of Christianity but the name. I turn to the Bible and I hear the Spirit saying, “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.”