Holiness – Isaiah 35:8 – Highway of Holiness

A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it.

The soothing allure of society’s unholy entertainment lulls us into considering acceptable that from which we should flee. Television shows parade immorality before us while we faithfully tune in and buy their sponsors’ products, thereby, ensuring a steady stream of programming tearing down the values set forth in the Word of God. We flock to movies that show in graphic detail things of which it is disgraceful for us even to speak.[1] Publishers sell millions of copies of macabre, occult, and sexually explicit books as we defend their authors’ literary license.

While we petition the Lord for pure and obedient hearts on Sunday mornings, through our actions, we categorically reject His injunction that we are to set ourselves apart from everything that contrasts with the holiness of God. How do we reconcile our behavior with the Lord’s instruction through His Word that we are to refrain from all filthiness, silly talk, and coarse jesting,[2] and to be as dead to immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desire?[3] Are we not to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord and worthy of Him in all respects?[4] What hope can we have for the lost in our crooked and perverse generation, if we, as Christians, are not above reproach and do not appear as lights in the world?[5] What example do we set for the weaker in the Church if we do not conduct ourselves with decency, shunning impurity in all of its forms?

Lord, drop the scales from our blind eyes, so we may differentiate the light from the darkness. Open our deaf ears that we may hear your instruction to us over the din from those practicing ungodliness and perverting the truth. Guide us in the righteous way and lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from participation with unclean and foolish things and keep our feet on the Highway of Holiness, so we may dwell in the beautiful place where You reside.[6]

[1] Ephesians 5:12

[2] Ephesians 5:4

[3] Colossians 3:5

[4] Colossians 1:10

[5] Philippians 2:15

[6] Matthew 6:13