Does It Grieve You?

I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. —2 Corinthians 7:9

How concerned are you about the holiness of the Body of Christ? Does it grieve you when Christians are unloving and unforgiving? When they’re gossips and gluttons? When they have more interest in possessions and pleasure than in spiritual riches and pleasing God?

Is your heart burdened when believers dishonor their parents and divorce their mates? When they are self-absorbed and self-promoting? Do you feel great sorrow when they use profanity and pornography or sin glibly and without blushing?

What would happen if believers were to get honest about their sin and serious about pursuing holiness? Might we not see God supernaturally convert multitudes of lost sinners to faith in Christ? Could we honestly say that most of our churches have a powerful testimony for Christ? What does that say about the condition of the church? C. H. Spurgeon put it this way: “In proportion as a church is holy, in that proportion will its testimony for Christ be powerful.”¹

¹ C. H. Spurgeon, 1000 Devotional Thoughts (Grand Rapids: Baker 1976 rept.), nos. 408, 205.

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Scripture taken from The CSB

Make it Personal

Pray that the Body of Christ would get serious about holiness and that God would use that testimony as a powerful witness.