98% Pure

“Nobody gets up in the morning and prepares a cup of coffee or tea with just one drop of poison in it, and then stirs and drinks it…No one would consider buying a bottle of mineral water whose label read, ’98 percent pure mineral water; 2 percent sewage water.’ Yet that is just what many Christians have allowed in their lives.

“…When I speak of holiness, they imagine that I am talking about living according to a legalistic set of man-made rules about clothing and hairstyles. They think this because, sadly, the church in times past has defined holiness simply by whether a person refrained from smoking cigarettes or watching worldly entertainment.

“This is not true holiness! The Bible does not define holiness as a man’s attempt to live according to certain man-made rules or regulations. True holiness, in fact, is an inward work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer. Only God can make us holy, and He is more interested in shaping our heart attitudes and delivering us from wrong desires than He is about conforming us to some man-made code of behavior. He wants to form Christ in us! And this work of refining can only be done by His Spirit.”
”—Sergio Scataglini, The Twelve Transgressions page xviii, xx-xxi