Keep the fire burning

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

John 17:17 [KJV]

Wood stove

I’ve recently been house-sitting in the country. One evening, as a storm rattled the house, I sat ‘cosied up’ by the wood heater in the lounge room. The glow of the charring wood mirrored my inner satisfaction: after two failed attempts, I was confident that I had built a fire that would burn for hours.

You see, I’m still learning how to run a wood heater. So far, I’ve discovered that if you don’t know what you’re doing, the kindling burns fiercely, but the bigger pieces of wood don’t catch, and the fire goes out quickly. A well-laid and tendered fire, however, will burn for hours.

It’s quite a metaphor, isn’t it? The wrong types of fires—lust, pride and anger—burn as easily as kindling. But the right, godly fires—holiness, sanctification, love and service for God—need knowledge and continual effort to stay alight.

So how do we keep godly fire burning brightly in our lives? It’s a huge topic, so today we’re narrowing our focus to just one part of a prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). We’ll begin by defining sanctification, then the role God’s Word plays in producing sanctification in our lives, and finally practical ways to fuel godly lives through Scripture intake.

The word “sanctify” means “to make holy, to purify or consecrate” (Strongs). It particularly refers to the act of dedicating an item or person to the service of God. For example, Exodus 29 outlines the ceremonial sacrifices and washings required for the consecration of the priests, who were set apart from other duties to focus exclusively on the work of the Tabernacle. The process of sanctifying the priests had both a once-off aspect (when the priest was appointed to the office) and an ongoing aspect, where the priest had to wash himself before the daily sacrifices. Similarly, at the moment of salvation, we are set apart to serve God. Hebrews 10:10 refers to this one-time dedication, saying, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Christ is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). But living a sanctified life is also an ongoing process. Jesus spoke of this when He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). We live in a world that is not holy. We live in bodies that at times still want to please ourselves—even though we’ve dedicated ourselves to God’s service. A life of holiness doesn’t just happen: Titus 2:12 says that God’s grace is “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:12).

Personal holiness is necessary for all fruitful Christian service. Yet we women can easily overlook this. We agree pastors and preachers must be holy men of God and we grieve when men of God are disgraced by moral scandals. But we rarely discuss the need for sanctification in women. We should. Rates of pornography addictions, intake of sexualised media content, emotional adultery and impurity in relationships are increasing amongst Christian women. And sanctification is much broader than simply moral purity: it means being ‘set apart for service to God’. Many Christian women lose focus on the things of God because they prioritise earthly things, such as making money, comfort, social media, career progression, comparisons and fears. First Peter 1:16 reminds all Christians—male and female—“Be ye holy; for I am holy”. This is only possible through divine enabling, which is why the Lord Jesus prayed “sanctify them”. But He adds a how, “through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).

The Word of God is absolute truth. In our world, it can be hard to discern what is truth. People only tell us part of the story, images may be digitally altered by AI, publications are motivated by underlying agendas and scams of all varieties abound. Yet the Bible is an accurate record of God’s words, history and God’s instructions on how we should live. The Bible points us to God, specifically referring to each member of the trinity as ‘Truth’. Isaiah 65:16 refers twice to the Father as “the God of truth”; Jesus Christ called Himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and said of the Holy Ghost “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). The Word of God also identifies and exposes sin (Romans 3:20), and (praise God!) also tells us how to deal with sin so we can live holy, victorious lives (1 John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:13). God’s Word identifies worldly philosophies, such as the feminist movement, as the lies of Satan that they are, and alerts us to Satan’s deeds (1 Peter 5:8). Remember, “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Clearly, the Word of God is essential fuel for the fire of sanctification in our lives—when it is obeyed, as James 1:22,25 state clearly, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. …a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

Since the Word of God is so important, we need to take every opportunity to feed upon it; “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). We need to read it (1 Timothy 4:13) and meditate on it: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2). Just a word of warning here: it’s easy to be lazy and turn too quickly to someone else’s (or AI’s!) interpretation of a Bible passage. While biblically sound commentaries and devotionals are great helps, it’s important to pause and let God speak to us about His Word through His Holy Spirit. We should also memorise Scripture. I couldn’t begin to list the number of times God has reminded me of a verse I’ve memorised, just in time to keep me from some action or thought that was not holy. As Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” We should listen to preaching on the Word and study the Bible, as the Bereans did; “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11b). We should also sing God’s Word. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” And we should love God’s Word, “O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). Filling our lives and minds with truth will keep us sanctified from error.

And the prayer Jesus prayed for His disciples He still prays for all His disciples today, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). May we learn to let the Truth, the Word of God sanctify our lives.