c. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness
To worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness signifies that in order to have fellowship with the Father one has
to be holy and so we have been duly admonished saying; “Pursue peace with all
people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord,” The Lord also
instructed us saying; “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there
remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there
before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and
then come and offer your gift” (Hebrews 12:14; Matthew 5:23-24).
Now since it is by partaking of
the body and blood of Jesus Christ that one becomes holy and can now have access
and fellowship with the Father and the Son and with one another and one is
required to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness as we have been duly
instructed saying; “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which
no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Our duty therefore is to follow
the instructions of Jesus Christ who instructed us saying; “Therefore if you
bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.
First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift”
(Matthew 5:23-24).
And holiness of course is the
fruit of righteousness, the righteous act which when practiced makes one
righteous even as Jesus Christ Himself is righteous and since we are to worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness the admonition therefore is; “I wrote to you
in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly
did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the
covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of
the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named
a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler,
or a drunkard, or an extortioner --- not even to eat with such a person” (1
Corinthians 5: 9-11).
The eating the apostle Paul is
referring to is the participation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ which
joins us together as one and allows us to have fellowship with one another and
with the Father and the Son, for this is what the apostle Paul wrote; “Therefore,
my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge for your-selves
what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body
of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake
of that one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:14-17).
To be continued
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With brotherly love
Lucius Joseph
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