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

by J.C. Ryle

I cannot see how anyone deserves to be called holy who willfully allows himself to sin and is not humbled and ashamed because of sin. I dare not call anyone holy who makes a habit of willfully neglecting known duties or willfully doing what he knows God has commanded him not to do. The Puritan John Owen well said, “I do not understand how a man can be a true believer unto whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble.”