So the call to holiness is, in truth, a call for spiritual renewal so that we might grow in our likeness of God as seen in Jesus Christ. By spiritually educating ourselves in the faith, we make a decision to separate ourselves from the values of this world and focus our lives on the values of God’s Kingdom made real in this present life. It means taking a radical step toward commitment to the Lord and living the WAY that He modeled when He was physically here on earth. It is only when we freely enter into full communion with Christ, person to person, can we become Godlike and consequently realize our full humanity. Then we begin to live as Christ wants us to live and as He Himself lived. This means, in practical terms, that we are non-conformists. We turn our backs on what may endanger the soul. We refuse to follow the fashion of the many and follow instead in the footsteps of the few.
The first Christians never had any doubt that they must be different from the world. They knew the world would most certainly hate them, and would probably kill them. But they did not fear death or the world, for they knew their Lord had overcome both. Over against this, lies the modern cry for conformity. Our society, by its many social pressures, encourages uniformity under the banner of equality. Yet the true follower of Christ does not behave as human pressures compel him, but as the WAY of Jesus compels him. He accepts the Lord as the leader of his life. If enough Christians were to respond to the Gospel in this way, they would indeed transform the whole world.
The biggest problem is that there are many loud voices that say they speak in the name of the Gospel or the WAY of Jesus but are, actually, a distortion of the Gospel. One of the basic criteria that can be used to determine whether one is living according to the Gospel is this: Is the way suggested a way that is filled with LOVE, FORGIVENESS, and NON-JUDGMENT of others. Is the way suggested how Jesus lived?