Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty – 2nd Corinthians 6:17-18.

Many professing Christians live according to the world and its standards rather than the written Word of God. The Bible was written for Christians to follow the instruction given to please God and to keep from going to hell.

It is not God’s desire for anyone to perish, so He gave His only begotten Son to die for the sins of the world. Jesus did not die so that professing Christians could continue to practice sin! God holds every Christian responsible for reading and studying His instructions as well as adhering to the instructions.

God has instructed His people to be separated from the world’s thinking and actions, but so many of His people are living double lives and think they are heaven bound. God’s people will follow the instructions of their employers in order to keep their jobs, but they will not follow the instructions of God to keep them from entering hell after death.

There is life after death accompanied by the judgment (And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment – Hebrews 9:27). When one dies, they will immediately enter heaven or hell. God has given everyone the freedom of choice where they will spend eternity.

Pursuing holiness is really nothing more than seeking to live the way God wants us to, as revealed in the Bible. As Christians, the Bible should be our directive for daily living; it gives us instructions on what or what not to do as Christians.

Some have failed in their Christian walk because they thought they could just read the Bible and then do what it says, and because they were trying to do it with self-pursuit rather than relying on God to help them live according to His Word, they gave up on trying to live a Christian life.

Yes, we are responsible to obey God, but we’re dependent on the Holy Spirit to enable us to do what He has instructed us to do. When we accept salvation, Christ comes to live in our hearts, and then we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus nor the Holy Spirit will never make us live a righteous life; we have to want to live a righteous life according to God’s written Word, then they will assist in doing so. When we want to, it means we have submitted ourselves totally to Him to take us through the process of spiritual growth.

Christians should have the character of God and His nature; this is brought into our lives by the Holy Spirit, known as the Fruit of the Spirit. All nine aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit must mature for this Fruit to develop.

We must allow the Holy Spirit to develop this character within us so that we will not be conformed to the world but conformed to God and His written Word. So many professing Christians feed their fleshly desires rather than their spirit (Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to this flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting – Galatians 6:7-8).

Soweth to the flesh means to conduct oneself by the evil dictates and desires of the sinful nature; therefore, practicing the deeds of the flesh causes separation from God, which will cause spiritual death as well as physical death.

Those who practice sin, the works of the flesh will be in manifestation (Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God – Galatians 5:19-21).

When one receives salvation, they are a new creation (Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new – 2nd Corinthians 5:17). If one is still doing what they were doing before accepting salvation they have not truly accepted salvation. When one truly accepts salvation, Christ comes to live in their heart, so one will become a new creation.

As we yield ourselves to Christ, we go through the process of spiritual growth. We don’t become mature Christians when we first receive salvation, but through the months and years of salvation, we should be growing spiritually unless we are carnal Christians.

Carnal Christians are hell-bound because they have become enmity to God (Ye adulterers and adulteress, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God – James 4:4). We can’t take on the world’s actions and serve God to, either we’re going to serve God, or we will serve the world when we serve the world, we’re serving Satan because he is the god of this world!

Daily as Christians, we should do a self-examination to see if we have sinned against God, and when we find ourselves in a sinful state, ask for forgiveness and don’t continue in the sin. Read and study the Bible to learn what is required of you as a Christian, and then apply the instructions to your daily living.

Pursuing God is following His instructions as being the people of God.