Holiness attained and holiness pursued

Jerry Bridges writes a great book called "The Pursuit of Holiness" which is accompanied by a great Bible study guide. It's really been beneficial to me as I've been trying to understand what it means in Titus 2:3 for women to be "reverent in behavior." Reverent can also mean holiness and while I've grown up hearing a lot about the word, I wanted a refresher course to know what practical things I could do to actually be that way.

Jerry does a great job discussing the difference between the holiness we attain immediately upon salvation and the holiness that God wants us to strive for. One of the biggest convictions that I'm thankful the Holy Spirit has laid upon my heart (conviction/condemnation are two totally different things coming from two totally different powers, so let's not confuse the two) is that God HATES sin.

Not just "big" sins, but all sins. I loved this quote by Bridges,

"God hats sin wherever He finds it, in saint and sinner alike. He does not hate sin in one person and overlook it in another. He judges each man's works impartially (1 Peter 1:17)."

Bridges challenges the believer to grow in hatred of sin and stop coexisting in tolerance with our own sin. I was challenged personally because while I was reading along feeling as though I was doing pretty well with the topic, I realized that I'm really much better at hating other people's sins than my own. I tend to look on the sexual immorality on TV, cruelty to children, rape, immodest clothing on girls on magazine covers, etc, with hatred, but I don't respond with the same shudder to the own sin in my heart - selfishness, anger, etc.

Finally,

"while it is true that [God] accepts us solely through the merit of Christ, God's standard for our character, our attitudes, our affections, and actions is, 'Be holy, because I am holy
(1 Peter 1:16).'" Bridges

Christ has given us the ability not only to be free from the judgment of sin, but from sin itself. Pretty amazing. I hope I'll do a better job taking Him up on the offer and hope you will too because it is "for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal. 5:1)."