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

by J.C. Ryle

War a good warfare; holding fast faith and a good conscience.

Words such as these appear to me to be clear, plain, and unmistakable. They all teach one and the same great lesson, if we are willing to receive it. That lesson is that true Christianity is a struggle, a fight, and a warfare. He who pretends to condemn “fighting” and teaches that we ought to sit still and passively “yield ourselves to God” appears to me to misunderstand his Bible and to make a great mistake.

“I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. . . . I sign this child with the sign of the cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ‘s faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end.”[1]

Whether we are Churchmen or not, one thing is certain – this Christian warfare is a great reality and a subject of vast importance. It is not a matter like church government and ceremony, about which people might differ and yet still reach heaven. Necessity is laid upon us. We must fight. There are no promises in the Lord Jesus Christ’s epistles to the seven churches, except to those who “overcome.” Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight.

As long as we have breath in our bodies we must keep our armor on and remember that we are on an enemy’s ground.

Let us take care that our own personal religion is real, genuine, and true. The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, drink, dress, work, amuse themselves, get money, spend money, and sit through a little formal religious service once or twice every week; but the great spiritual warfare – its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests – of all this they seem to know nothing at all. Let us be careful that this is not the case with us. The worst state of soul is when an armed strong man keeps his palace, [and] his goods are in peace (Luke 11:21) – when he leads men and women captive at his will (2 Timothy 2:26), and they make no resistance. The worst chains are those that are neither felt nor seen by the prisoner.

Are we conscious of two sets of standards within us contending for control?

Yes but I find the holier standard denied by all Christians I come in contact with

All true saints are soldiers. Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness, and indifference. We are in a better condition than many. Most so-called Christians have no feeling at all. We are evidently no friends of Satan. Like the kings of this world, he wars not against his own subjects. The very fact that he assaults us should fill our minds with hope. I say again, let us take comfort. The child of God has two great characteristics about him: he can be known by his inward warfare, and he can be known by his inward peace.

A general faith in the truth of God’s written Word is the primary foundation of the Christian soldier’s character. He is what he is, does what he does, thinks as he thinks, acts as he acts, hopes as he hopes, and behaves as he behaves for one simple reason: he believes certain statements that are revealed and laid down in Holy Scripture.

No one ever fights earnestly against the world, the flesh, and the devil unless he has engraved on his heart certain main principles that he believes. He might hardly know what they are, and may certainly not be able to define or write them down, but they are there, and consciously or unconsciously, they form the roots of his Christianity. Wherever you see someone, whether rich or poor, learned or unlearned, wrestling bravely with sin and trying to overcome it, you can be sure there are certain great principles that person believes.

I think we use "feelings" to describe the influence of these unidentified dogmas.

He sees by faith an unseen Savior, who loved him, gave Himself for him, paid his debts for him, bore his sins, carried his transgressions, rose again for him, and appears in heaven for him as his advocate at the right hand of God. He sees Jesus and clings to Him. Seeing this Savior and trusting in Him, he feels peace and hope, and he willingly battles against the foes of his soul.

He who is forgiven much, loves much

He sees his own many sins. He sees his weak heart, a tempting world, and a busy devil; and if he looked only at them, he might rightly despair.

Seeing Him, he cheerfully fights on, with full confidence that he and others like him will prove to be more than conquerors through him that loved us (Romans 8:37).

He who has the most faith will always be the happiest and most comfortable soldier. Nothing makes the anxieties of warfare sit so lightly on a man as the assurance of Christ’s love and continual protection.

Let us turn to the pages of early church history. Let us see how the early Christians firmly held to their Christian beliefs even unto death, and were not shaken by the fiercest persecutions of heathen emperors. For centuries, men like Polycarp and Ignatius were not lacking, who were ready to die rather than deny Christ. Fines, prisons, torture, fire, and sword were unable to crush the spirit of the noble army of martyrs. The whole power of imperial Rome, the mistress of the world, proved unable to stamp out the religion that began with a few fishermen and tax collectors in Israel! Let us remember that believing in an unseen Jesus was the church’s strength.

Let us study the lives of its leading champions – men such as Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Ridley, Latimer, and Hooper. Let us see how these gallant soldiers of Christ stood firm against a host of adversaries and were ready to die for their principles. What battles they fought! What controversies they maintained! What contradiction they endured! What tenacity of purpose they exhibited against a world in arms! Let us remember that believing in an unseen Jesus was the secret of their strength. They overcame by faith.

Let us observe how men like Wesley, Whitefield, Venn, and Romaine stood alone in their day and generation and revived English religion in the face of opposition from men high in office, and in the face of slander, ridicule, and persecution from nine-tenths of professing Christians in the land.

Let us observe how men like William Wilberforce, Henry Havelock, and Hedley Vicars have witnessed for Christ in the most difficult positions and displayed a banner for Christ even as they served in the military or in politics. Let us observe how these noble witnesses never flinched to the end, winning the respect even of their worst adversaries. Let us remember that believing in an unseen Christ was the key to their character. By faith they lived, walked, stood, and overcame.[3]

Do any of you want to live the life of a Christian soldier? Then pray for faith. It is the gift of God, and it is a gift for which those who ask will never ask in vain. You must believe before you do. If people do nothing in Christianity, it is because they do not believe. Faith is the first step toward heaven. Do any of you want to fight the fight of a Christian soldier successfully and prosperously? Then pray for a continual increase of faith.

I will ask and ask again

Let your daily prayer be that of the disciples: Lord, Increase our faith (Luke 17:5). Watch jealously over your faith, if you have any. It is the stronghold of the Christian character on which the safety of the whole fortress depends. It is the point that Satan loves to attack. All lies at his mercy if faith is overthrown. If we love life, we must especially stand on our guard.

“Good” is a strange word to apply to any warfare. All worldly war is more or less evil. No doubt it is an absolute necessity in many cases – to procure the liberty of nations and to prevent the weak from being trampled down by the strong – but still it is an evil. It involves an awful amount of bloodshed and suffering. It hurries large numbers of people into eternity who are completely unprepared for their change. It calls forth the worst passions of man. It causes enormous waste and destruction of property. It fills peaceful homes with mourning widows and orphans. It spreads poverty, taxation, and national distress far and wide. It disarranges the entire order of society. It interrupts the work of the gospel and the growth of Christian missions. In short, war is an immense and incalculable evil, and every praying person should cry night and day, “Give us peace in our time.” Yet there is one warfare that is emphatically “good,” and there is one fight in which there is no evil. That warfare is the Christian warfare. That fight is the fight of the soul.

The Captain of our salvation never fails to lead His soldiers to victory. He never makes any useless movements, never errs in judgment, and never commits any mistake. His eye is on all His followers, from the greatest of them even to the least.

Chosen by God the Father, washed in the blood of the Son, and renewed by the Spirit, he does not go to war at his own command, and he is never alone. God the Holy Spirit daily teaches, leads, guides, and directs him. God the Father guards him by His almighty power.

The Christian fight is a good fight because it is fought with the best of promises. To every believer belongs exceeding great and precious promises – all yea and amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20) – promises sure to be fulfilled, because they are made by One who cannot lie and has the power as well as the will to keep His word. Sin shall have no dominion over you (Romans 6:14). Let the God of peace bruise Satan under your feet quickly (Romans 16:20). He who has begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). When thou dost pass through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee (Isaiah 43:2). My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand (John 10:27-28). He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out (John 6:37). I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee (Hebrews 13:5). Therefore I am certain that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any creature shall be able to separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ, Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

No soldiers of Christ are ever lost, missing, or left dead on the battlefield. No mourning will ever be needed and no tears will ever need to be shed for either private or officer in the army of Christ. The list of active soldiers, when the last evening comes, will be found precisely the same as it was in the morning. The English Guards marched out of London to the Crimean campaign a magnificent body of men, but many of those brave men laid their bones in a foreign grave and never saw London again. Far different will be the arrival of the Christian army in the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). Not one will be found lacking. The words of our great Captain will be found true: Of those whom thou gavest me I have lost none (John 18:9). Surely this is good!

All other wars have a bad, lowering, and demoralizing tendency. They bring out the worst passions of the human mind. They harden the conscience and sap the foundations of religion and morality. The Christian warfare alone tends to bring out the best things that are left in man. It promotes humility and charity, it lessens selfishness and worldliness, and it convinces people to set their affections on things above. The old, the sick, and the dying are never known to repent of fighting Christ’s battles against sin, the world, and the devil. Their only regret is that they did not begin to serve Christ much earlier. The experience of that eminent saint Philip Henry does not stand alone. In his last days he said to his family, “I take you all to record that a life spent in the service of Christ is the happiest life that a man can spend upon earth.”[4] Surely this is good!

No matter where you go, you will rarely find that barracks and garrisons do good to the neighborhood. But no matter where you go, you will find that the presence of a few true Christians is a blessing. Surely this is good!

Who can tell the wages that Christ will pay to all His faithful people? Who can estimate the good things that our divine Captain has laid up for those who confess Him before men? A grateful country can give medals to her successful warriors. It can give Medals of Honor, Victoria Crosses, pensions, and other honors and titles, but it can give nothing that will last and endure forever, nothing that can be carried beyond the grave. Palaces like Blenheim and Stratfield Saye can only be enjoyed for a few years. The bravest generals and soldiers must kneel one day before the King of Terrors. Better, far better, is the position of him who fights under Christ’s banner against sin, the world, and the devil. He may not receive much praise of man while he lives, and he may go down to the grave without much honor, but he will have that which is far better, for it is far more enduring. He will have the incorruptible crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4). Surely this is good!

We see only part of it as yet. We see the struggle, but not the end. We see the campaign, but not the reward. We see the cross, but not the crown. We see a few humble, broken-spirited, penitent, praying people enduring hardships and despised by the world, but we do not see the hand of God over them, the face of God smiling on them, and the kingdom of glory prepared for them. These things are yet to be revealed. Let us not judge by appearances. There are more good things about the Christian warfare than we see.

You may be struggling hard for the rewards of this world. Perhaps you are straining every nerve to obtain money, position, power, or pleasure. If that is your case, be cautious. Your sowing will lead to a crop of bitter disappointment. Unless you begin to take care, your end will be to lie down in sorrow. Thousands have travelled the path you are pursuing, and they have awoken too late, only to find that the path ends in misery and eternal ruin. They have fought hard for wealth, honor, power, and promotion, and have turned their backs on God, Christ, heaven, and the world to come. What has their end been? Often, far too often, they have found out that their whole life has been a grand mistake. They have tasted by bitter experience the feelings of the dying statesman who cried aloud in his last hours, “The battle is fought; the battle is fought, but the victory is not won.” For the sake of your own happiness, resolve this day to join the Lord’s side. Shake off your past carelessness and unbelief. Come out from the ways of a thoughtless, unreasoning world. Take up the cross and become a good soldier of Christ. Fight the good fight of faith, that you may be happy as well as safe.

Think what the children of this world will often do for liberty, without any Christian motivation. Remember how the Greeks, Romans, Swiss, and Tyrolese have endured the loss of all things, and even life itself, rather than bend their necks to a foreign yoke. Let their example provoke you to emulation. If people can do so much for a corruptible crown, how much more should you do for a crown that is incorruptible!

Awake to a sense of the misery of being a slave. For life, happiness, and liberty – arise and fight. Fear not to begin and enlist in Christ’s army. The great Captain of your salvation rejects no one who comes to Him. Like David in the cave of Adullam, He is ready to receive all who are ready to join with Him, however unworthy they may feel themselves to be. None who repent and believe are too bad to be enrolled in Christ’s army. All who come to Him by faith are admitted, cl...

“In heaven we shall appear, not in armor, but in robes of glory. But here our arms are to be worn night and day. We must walk, work, sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ.”[5]

Let us remember that thousands of soldiers before us have fought the same battle that we are fighting, and have come off more than conquerors through Him who loved them (Romans 8:37). They overcame by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:11), and so also may we. Christ’s arm is quite as strong as ever, and His heart is just as loving as ever. He who saved men and women before us never changes. He is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him (Hebrews 7:25). Then let us cast doubts and fears away. Let us follow them who by faith and patience inherit the promises and are waiting for us to join them (Hebrews 6:12).

Which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost? (Luke 14:28)

The text above is one of great importance. Few are the people who are not compelled to ask themselves, “What does it cost?” In buying property, building houses, furnishing rooms, forming plans, changing dwellings, or educating children, it is wise and prudent to look forward and consider the cost. Many people would save themselves much sorrow and trouble if they would only remember the question, “What does it cost?” But there is one subject on which it is especially important to count the cost. That subject is the salvation of our souls. What does it cost to be a true Christian? What does it cost to be a truly holy person? This, after all, is the great question. For lack of thought about this, thousands of people, after seeming to begin well, turn away from the road to heaven and are lost forever in hell.

We live in a day when many people profess to be Christians. Professing Christians in every part of the land are expressing a desire for more holiness and a higher degree of spiritual life, yet it is very common to see these people receiving the Word with joy, and then after two or three years falling away and going back to their sins. They had not considered what it costs to be a really consistent believer and holy Christian. Certainly these are times when we should sit down and count the cost and consider the condition of our souls. We must pay attention to how we are. If we desire to truly be holy, it is a good sign. We may thank God for putting the desire into our hearts, but still, the cost should be counted. No doubt Christ’s way to eternal life is a way of pleasantness, but it is foolish to shut our eyes to the fact that His way is narrow and the cross comes before the crown.

I am not examining what it costs to save a person’s soul. I know well that it costs nothing less than the blood of the Son of God to provide an atonement and to redeem us from hell. The price paid for our redemption was nothing less than the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary. We are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). Christ gave himself in ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:6).

I want to consider what a person must be ready to give up if he wants to be saved. It is the amount of sacrifice a person must submit to if he intends to serve Christ.

There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be made, Egypt to be forsaken, a wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, and a race to be run.

He must be willing to give up all trust in his own morality, respectability, praying, Bible reading, church-going, and sacraments, and he must trust in nothing but Jesus Christ. This sounds difficult to some. I do not wonder why. “Sir,” said a godly farmer to the well-known James Hervey,[1] “it is harder to deny proud self than sinful self, but it is absolutely necessary.” Let us remember this first and foremost.

He must be willing to give up every habit and practice that is wrong in God’s sight. He must set his face against it, quarrel with it, break off from it, fight with it, crucify it, and labor to keep it under subjection, no matter what the world around him may say or think.

He must consider all sins to be his deadly enemies, and he must hate every false way. Whether little or great, whether open or secret, all his sins must be thoroughly renounced.

Covetousness

They may struggle hard with him every day and may sometimes almost get the mastery over him, but he must never give in to them.

Cast away from you all your iniquities (Ezekiel 18:31), Redeem thy sins . . . and thine iniquities (Daniel 4:27), an...

Our sins are often as dear to us as our children: we love them, hug them, cleave to them, and delight in them. To part with them is as hard as cutting off a right hand or plucking out a right eye, but it must be done. The parting must come.

yet it must be given up if he wants to be saved

Christ is willing to receive any sinners, but He will not receive them if they will cling to their sins.

It will cost him his love of ease. He must take pains and trouble if he intends to run a successful race toward heaven. He must daily watch and be on his guard, like a soldier on the enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behavior every hour of the day, in every company and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful with his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, and his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible reading, and his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace. In attending to these things, he may come far short of perfection, but he cannot safely neglect any of them. The soul of the sluggard desires, and attains nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat (Proverbs 13:4). This also sounds difficult. There is nothing we naturally dislike as much as trouble in living our religion.

We hate trouble. We secretly wish we could have a vicarious Christianity and could be good by having someone else be good for us, having everything done for us. Anything that requires exertion and labor is entirely against the grain of our hearts, but the soul can have no gains without pains. To be a Christian will cost us our love of ease.

I hear a vicarious Christianity preached often