People criticize those that preach that we must be a holy and separate people. They say we are legalistic. God is a Judge, however, that will judge His people. So just maybe we should look at what He considers legal and what He describes as lawless. Hebrews 10:30 and 31 are scriptures that should make us look at holiness as a commandment as opposed to seeing it as a personal choice.

We must keep His commandments.

But the lukewarm try to hide behind the fact that God is a God of mercy and grace. Yes, our God is a God of mercy and grace. But He is only Grace and Mercy to those who are sincerely trying to make a holy walk. Here is what the scriptures advise us to do concerning our walk.

Those that truly want to be conformed to His image are constantly searching themselves to see where they fall short of His holiness. They judge themselves and therefore walk in repentance. He is faithful to forgive those ones. We all fall short, but sadly we do not all repent. Mainly this is because we are not taught the necessity of holiness. It is at this point of discussion that many people whine: "but we are no longer under the law" or they say "you are trying to put us back under the law to be cursed by it". Let me state for the record that I do not think we should be under the law, but God did not say we could ignore the law either. In fact He said we were to be like Jesus, who fulfilled the law.

He even wrote the law on our hearts and minds so we could not forget it.

Again, His mercy and grace extends to those that stumble in their holiness walk, not those that do not think they even need to begin the walk.

I agree that when we are first baptized as a baby Christian, we are in Christ Jesus. He becomes our covering and our tabernacle or sanctuary and our sins are forgiven. Like any new baby we are unconditionally taken care of, but as we mature and experience the filling of the Holy Spirit of Jesus as the Spirit of Truth, He expects more of us because now He lives in us and we become His tabernacle, or His mansion or castle. We see these statements confirmed at Galatians 3:27, where we put on Jesus and then at John 14:16-17, where He promises to puts us on.

Again we see the promise of the entrance of His Holy Spirit at Acts 1:4-5 and the fulfillment of the promise at Acts 2:4.

Now let us look at 1 Corinthians 6:19 to see the result of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Our body is no longer ours. It is the home of God! Should we not be holy if we are to house a holy God? Colossians 1:27 tells us that it is Christ in us that is the hope of glory.

The opposite of Christ in us being the hope of glory is Satan in us, the hope of defeat! So let us look in the mirror and see who is in us? How are we to judge? By their fruit you will know them.

Whose fruit are we manifesting? Galatians 5:22 and 23 tells us what fruit will come from our lives or be apparent to the world if we are the castles or Tabernacles of Christ our King.

When the fruit of the Spirit is manifesting in us we are not under the law but we are fulfilling the law or are becoming the law over our flesh. But those that do not separate from the world, its unclean people and their pleasures manifest the works of the flesh which are found at Galatians also:

Paul tells us:

We must let the law in our hearts and minds through our conscience rule us. Again I want to reiterate, we are not under the law, but it is still working in us like a blueprint, showing us the way to holiness. If you look at the church as a whole, how much selfish ambition, dissensions, jealousy and outbursts of wrath do you see? Is there not even adultery and fornication in much of its leadership? Why? Because they are lawless or cold to the law that should be operating in their hearts and minds. Are we being legalistic? I don't think so. Look what Paul said to the Ephesians concerning this very thing.

To the Romans Paul said:

Maybe we should read that scripture again, as it is very plain! We are to establish the law. How? By fulfilling it as an individual and letting the Spirit that wrote the law rule in our lives. We grieve His Spirit when we sin. We must search the scriptures, obey our conscience and walk as God would have us walk. Again, how does God want us to walk?

But here is something that each of us must personally do for ourselves:

Ignorance is not an excuse. We are to examine the scriptures closely to determine the correct way. Then look at what our responsibility is if we find ourselves even around lawlessness.

Here is what Paul said to those at Corinth.

Then in the next statement he warned the shepherds that were there.

Let us go on to read verse 16, remembering that we have become God's dwelling place since the infilling of the Holy Spirit!

Where we go we take Him with us, what we say He hears. When we expose ourselves to evil He too is exposed and affected by that evil.

We are His tabernacle.Let us look at the word tabernacle in the Strongs Concordance. The number for tabernacle is:

So we see from the meaning of tabernacle, we are the outer shell, tent, temple, tabernacle or even castle that houses Christ! We are the Queen on the outside as His wife, and yet we are the King on the inside that is the hope of glory. When we reach a mature place of holiness we will truly become one.

The church world is still looking for a second coming of Christ and His Kingdom. Peter tried to warn us at second Peter 3:10.

Old Israel missed Him the first time, thinking He would come as some mighty world ruler, and they surely did not understand that it was God Himself in the body suit of Jesus coming to reconcile the world. We see this in scripture in second Corinthians 5:19.

Today the church world, dead on the street to the truth that has been revealed, will never understand it is Christ in us that is the hope of glory either. Again let us look at Colossians 1:27.

Nor will they understand Luke 17:20-21 or Colossians 2:8-10!

So you see why we want to be a sparkling clean castle or tabernacle for our King to dwell in.

Whose tabernacle, castle or tower are we? Is it Christ in us with the fruit of the Spirit apparent in our lives? Or is Satan resident in us with his evil fruit manifesting through us? Have we separated and are we obedient to the call of God in Revelation 18:4 to come out of Babylon? God's people must search themselves for the answers to these questions in their personal lives. They must judge themselves before they are judged by God.

Sadly, if we remain a part of what God judges as evil, we will be crushed and destroyed along with the evil. We must be holy as He is holy and we can only be labeled as holy if we walk in repentance and obey His commands. But to repent we have to first see the sin in our lives and then, at the risk of being called legalistic, dare to change and walk in holiness!