Luke 6:46 - Part II – As Christians, we are to obey His commands

Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord” and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46)

The sister went on to say that in the past she did not know that following Jesus was not about “doing” the laws, and that she did get confused between obedience to God and “doing” the laws. She said there did not seem to be any difference to her.

In part I, we ended with such saying, “Sure, it is possible to be like what the Lord has remarked in the above verse, that there are those among us who just call Him, Lord, Lord, but do not do what He say or said”. The consequence of that was allegorically depicted by the Lord in one’s attempt to build a house, one, on the foundation of His Lordship, and another, without {such} foundation; one will stand, the other, a wash-out, when water of testing comes.

Doing laws? Obey His commands
So now, is following Jesus about “doing” the laws? Now, if the “doing the laws”, here, means obeying the commands of God, then, yes! To be a Christian is to live a life in obedience to the commands of God or to live a life in submission to His Lordship. As a Christian, if you are not going to live your life that way, then you should not be surprised when the Lord poses Luke 6:46 to you. To me, the allegory of Jesus is referring to our homes, our homes or, no homes, in Heaven! If I be very blunt about it, if you are not going to live out your life in submission to His Lordship, it is possible you will have no home waiting for you in Heaven, even though you thought you have one built.

Luke 6:46 is to be taken seriously
My advice for people, not that I have arrived, is not to reason away Luke 6:46 and the allegory of Jesus that followed it. Do not listen to people who say that salvation has nothing to do with Lordship of God, or think out all kinds of excuses, including grace, etc, etc, to say that it is alright if the commands of God are not followed so long as one has accepted Jesus as his Savior. I too find it difficult to obey some of the commands of God, but still it does not necessarily mean that obeying the commands of God is not the thing to do. The spirit must be one, of us submitting to the Lordship of God. There might be isolated failures which we have to ask for forgiveness from the Lord, but we must endeavor to live in submission to His Lordship.

To obey God is to obey His commands
Again referring to the sister’s remark, does obeying God imply obeying his commands? Yes, but if you find it very difficult to obey a certain command of God, you can talk to God. God is not legalistic, but the spirit should be that we are to obey Him and His commands.

New lens – obey out of love
The word, “transformation” has become such a catchy jargon that it is used in all sorts of settings to talk about changes that are to take place in the hearts and minds of believers concerning many matters, but it was rarely used to point to what God said concerning how we should view the obedience to his commands. Jesus said those who love Him obey His commands, and those who obey His commands are the ones who love Him. This is the transformation that we must catch; we have to change our mindset in our viewing of obedience to God’s commands. From obeying out of fear, we are to change to obeying out of love for God. Our submission to His Lordship should be, out of love, and not out of fear. When the obeying and the submission are out of love, it will cause lasting change in us. If it is out of fear, when the “stick” is taken away, the attitude disappears. If it is out of love, with or without the “stick”, the attitude remains. God first loves us. How can we love Him back? Obey Him and His commands, is one sure way!

No, No, No, …
Is it alright for one to disobey God or to sin, just because Jesus had already died for us, and His work was completed; and all our sins have been forgiven of us at our born-again? The answer is no. It is not alright. At our born-again, our FUTURE SINS, relative to the time of born-again, were NOT yet forgiven, simply because it had not happen. It is reading words into Scripture to say that our FUTURE SINS were already forgiven. Jesus’ blood was capable of cleansing future sins, but it does not necessary mean that at our born-again, the blood of Jesus cleansed at that moment, even the sins of our future, relative to the born-again moment. Subsequently, when we, believers, sin, we just have to practice 1 John1:9. We are not made perfect at born again, that we are incapable of subsequent sinning. It is a lie that 1 John 1:9 is not believers; and those believers who think that they have not sinned subsequent to conversion is calling God a liar. I encourage readers to read my separate article on “1 John 1:9 is for believers” to correctly understand that indeed 1 John 1:9 is for believers.

Godly sorrow leads to repentance
That we have been reconciled to God at born-again through the work done by Jesus on the Cross, does that mean that everything is alright between God and a believer? Yes. Then does it mean that a believer is no longer condemned, and his guilt has been removed from him? Yes, at his born-again, when he was forgiven and cleansed of his sins. What if he sins after his born-again, does he become condemned, and be guilty? Unless you can find Scripture saying that a sin by a believer is not a sin, and the wages of sin is not the same as that of a sin before born-again, a sin brings on condemnation, and rightly that believer is guilty and should be sorrowful for it. It is a lie that a believer is not condemned on sinning, not guilty, should not feel guilty, and ought not be sorrowful about what he is doing or has just done. The Apostle Paul said in his epistle to the Corinthians brethrens (2 Cor 7), that believers ought to be sorrowful for sins they had done. In fact, Paul was saying that he did not regret his letter caused them sorrow, because godly sorrow was to bring on repentance. If you ignore godly sorrow, or numb it again and again (and that includes the pricking of your conscience by the Holy Spirit), you will not repent, and when you do not repent, and will not ask for forgiveness, how are you going to be forgiven, and the condemnation from the sin be lifted you?

Please, a sin is a sin
Are you insisting that God had forgiven you of your FUTURE sins, and therefore, there is no consequence to whatsoever sin that you may commit now or in the future? Is sin not a sin anymore? Where is it written in Scripture? Or are you expecting the blood of Jesus to operate like an auto-wipe anti-virus program for the believers, the very moment you commit a sin, it is automatically wiped off you! These are presumptuous interpretations of Scripture. Scripture only said that Jesus died more than 2000 years ago, yet his blood is available and capable of cleansing of the sins of any future person, relative to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Died once but propitiation is available for appropriations into future. People should stop saying a believer is persecuting Jesus all over again if he feels condemned or guilty. No, Jesus died once and was persecuted before His death and resurrection; even if you want it He will not die again or be persecuted anymore. This cannot be used to justify the position that one should not be sorrowful about his un-confessed sins, on the pretext that, that would persecute Jesus all over again. He should only not feel condemned, guilty or sorrowful if he has confessed his sins, as in 1 John 1:9. It is right to explain to such believers who had confessed, that they are not to feel that way {guilty, condemned}, but it is surely NOT right to tell believers that they should not feel condemned, guilty and sorrowful when they are indeed in sin, and have NOT wanted to confess or ask forgiveness. At times, we should not be too harsh to people, but surely reinforcing the “it is alright to do wrong/sin” mentality is NOT acceptable.

Our God is a holy God, be holy as He is holy
Brother Anthony, you mean I have to do it {confession} again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and …? You don’t like that, then, refrain from sinning. You don’t like it, but Scripture said the Holy Spirit is grieved (by your sinning). If you say you love God, stop grieving His Spirit. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH TRYING. We should not dissuade people from trying to be better, rather we should persuade it, and exhort it. Satan will tell you to forget about trying, that it is too difficult; do not fall for it! We are all on a journey, we do fall, but we are to get up, and when we fall again, we get up again, and whether we are up or down, we are to help others along, not discourage them, on the Highway of Holiness. Those who are interested to know where Scripture talked about this Highway, and my exposition thereof, read my separate article, “Way of Holiness”.



Anthony Chia, high.expressions – Lord, I will try, and try, and try, because it is my love for you.

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Trials and Temptations (James 1:2-18)

This article will be a little different from other articles so far. It takes the form of a commentary on a passage from the Bible talking about a particular topic or subject. I believe there will be some more articles of this kind in the future. (This will not fit into the category of "Daily Devotion", which some readers have requested. I know the common remarks that the articles are too long for "daily devotion". Sorry, currently I have no inclination to provide short articles. Articles will still tended to be more in-depth study of the Word.) Today, we look at the topic of "Trials and Temptations" from James 1:2-18.

The way to read this is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I would probably insert a section on "what we ought to have understood/learnt".

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. [The author, possibly James – the brother of Jesus, said, “Consider it pure joy”. How come he can look at trials in this way? I believe he is looking at the end result. The end result is that we become mature and complete, not lacking anything – what a wonderful end result; would you like that? We commonly heard it said that the end does not always justify the means. I think if we have godly WISDOM for execution, we should always fix our eyes on the end result.
Paul also exhorted us to fix our eyes on the end result – see 1 Cor 9:24 and Heb 12:1. Notice that the word, “whenever” is used here instead of “if”. Also notice that James was addressing Christians (“my brothers” used). What I am trying to say is that Christians WILL face trials of many kinds. People should not think that by becoming a Christian, their lives on earth will be smooth sailing. The Bible does not promise that. And Christians should not think that necessarily there is something wrong with themselves when they got hit with trials of many kinds; and we should not be too quick to judge other Christians on seeing that they are hit with trials of many kinds. James said we will face trials and we must hang in there, and when we do that, our suffering will produce perseverance. Perseverance produced by suffering will produce character and character, hope that does not disappoint (Romans 5:3-5).] 5If any of you lacks WISDOM, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. [But then you may say, “I do not have godly wisdom”. James told us to ask God for it. He said God will give it generously without fault. Any conditions attached? James said we must believe and not doubt (see also Mark 11:23). A doubting person is like a wave in the sea, blown and tossed by the wind; he is double minded, unstable in all he does. Such a person cannot expect to receive anything from God. I also believe implicitly, what we ask, has to be for a good END RESULT.] 9The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. 10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. 12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. [Why did James “stick” this here, talking about low position, high position, and riches? I believe 2 things we are to learn here. Firstly, what is good end result to us may not necessarily be THE good end result in God’s eyes. I believe at times, God has a better end result or what we consider good is not good enough to Him. Or we may think a certain end is the end but God does not look at that end as the end, He has another end in mind and therefore another end result, different from ours. Secondly, a lot of our trials got to do with 2 things – pride and money. I believe James was talking about taking pride in only one position – that we have been given citizenships (Phil 3:20a) in the Kingdom of God. Those of us in low positions (poor, low status) should take pride that God despises not the lowly and accept us all the same (this is the high position of the lowly people); those of us who are in high positions (rich, high status) should take pride that the same God’s grace was at work, so much so as to cause us to accept the gift of life, and continues to work in us (the rich's low position because he can boast not of it). The rich man’s riches and status are not what will get him the salvation that he can boast about but it is grace of God that he has salvation. The Bible in Mat 19:24, stated that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. All worldly pride, glamour and money/riches will pass away. What matters are 2 things – whether one stood the test and whether one loves God. When you satisfied both, you will be assured of a place in the Kingdom of God. To stand the test, we have to persevere under trial.] 13When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. [James, in addressing temptations, was saying God cannot be tempted by evil, and He does not tempt anyone. He (James) went on to explain how a temptation comes about and how if it is not handled correctly will lead to sin and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Again, here, Christians are included (in fact James was addressing the Christians). Therefore, what it means is that even if you are a Christian, if you having been tempted, got into sin and the sin, when it has become full-grown, it will lead to death. The death here is referring to the 2nd death – eternal suffering in the lake of fire in Hell. If you think that since you are already a Christian you will never go to Hell even if you sin and are unrepentant, I say, you better think again.] 16Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. [James reminded us not to be deceived. He also said that good and perfect gifts come from God who does not change. God has allowed us to be born-again as fore-runners of the many more He would save.]

[Added on 22 April 2010: It is interesting that, even though the theme of James 1 was on trials, James ended the chapter with theses verses of 16-18.

I believe perhaps, among those who faced trials, whom James was trying to encourage, were people who at some points in time, previously, were evidently used of God in many wonderful ways, perhaps, healed the sick, performed miracles, etc, but were now faced with trials. I believe he was trying to say that they should not, for a moment, think that what they were capable of accomplishing in the past, with the exercise of their spiritual gifts, were not from God {thus he said all good and perfect gift is from God}, or that God was fickle-minded and had abandoned them {thus he said God does not change like shifting shadows}. James said He chose; God chose to give them life through the Word. Implicit in that I believe James said that God loves them {despite their facing of trials}, for at the base of it all, love is a choice. When God chose to birth anyone of us {salvation}, He bound Himself to love us. Love is a choice, and the love that cometh from God’s choice of birth is an agape love.]


What we ought to have understood:

1. We should keep our heads up when faced with trials.

2. Christians are not exempted from trials.

3. We must persevere in our trials and keep our eyes on the end result.

4. Ask God for wisdom, and when we ask, believe and do not doubt.

5. Take pride only in one position – that we have been given citizenships to the Kingdom of God by God’s grace and that, that grace is still at work to keep us on the Way of Holiness which leads to the Kingdom (For more on Way of Holiness, click here).

6. Persevere in trials and love God are things to do for us to be assured of the crown of life.

7. Remember, God does not tempt us. He will chastise us because He loves us but does not tempt us. Temptation is an inducement to do evil or to sin. God cannot be doing that. However, He may allow situations of trials to come into our lives so that our faith may be tested to develop perseverance in us, and when that peseverance has finished it work, we may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. Temptations come by Satan directly, or by the workings of the fallen world, appealing to the cravings of our sinful nature.

8. We are tempted when because of our lack of self-control over our desires, be dragged away and enticed. Giving in to temptation gives birth to sin, and sin when full-grown leads to death.

9. Sins are sins, whether committed by Christians or non-Christians. The consequence of sin is the same, death, if not repented from and forgiven by God. Repent and ask God for forgiveness for your sins if you (Christians included) do not want to end up in Hell.

10. Be thankful to God that we are born-again and are fore-runners of the many more He would save. Thank Him also for all His good and perfect gifts to us, and his unchanging character.


Anthony Chia - Consider this: In place of worldly pride, glamour and riches, seek the peace and joy that come from knowing God. And adopt Paul’s attitude - I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14)

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Be holy because I am holy

Can we ever be holy?
What does it mean, practically?
What must we do?

Way of Holiness
Isaiah 35:8a - And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.
I have expounded this on my blog entry:  Way of Holiness - The Way of the Lord. I encourage you to read this entry to appreciate why holiness is so important.

I will just summarise the key reasons for holiness:
1. God is holy and unholy cannot be with holy
2. When we are holy, God will receive us
3. Without holiness , you will not see God

Can we ever be holy?
1 Peter 1:14-16 - As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he[the Lord] who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

I believe that many things are always, either right or wrong, i.e. one way or the other, no two ways about them. For example, for Christians, you cannot worship another god beside the Lord God Almighty.

On the other hand, there are few things that can be viewed in a spectrum kind of way (although, it may be possible to break down the thing into all its components and look at each and every component individually, to decide whether it is right or wrong). Holiness, for example, is one of them. You can view holiness from a scale of say, 0 to 10; where 10 is the holiness of God, perfect holiness. This being the case, one may be tempted to say that it would be alright to score 2, and be contented with that. But for any endeavour, if 10 is the perfect score, would 2 do, especially, if you are going to be contented with that? Where will it lead you to? Another may ask, then can I ever achieve 10 for holiness? For that matter, is it possible for man to achieve any holiness?

I believe if it is not possible for man to achieve any degree of holiness, God would not ask it. I also do not believe once you accepted Jesus as the Saviour, you straightway become holy to the degree of 10 and remain so, all the time, kind of auto-refreshing by Jesus. I accept the holiness of Jesus is 10, and the suggestion that on imputation of Jesus’ holiness upon a person, the degree of holiness imputed is to the degree of 10; but I do not believe the state remains at 10 without maintenance. I can accept that each time all your sins are forgiven you and you are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, your holiness can reach 10, by virtue of the imputed holiness of Jesus but that holiness can fall. Does that then mean, it is not our business or our fault if we are not having a high score? No, God said “Be holy, because I am holy”. That means we are accountable.

What does it mean, practically?
The next gives us the big picture:
2 Cor 6:16 - 2 Cor 7:1
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Cor 7:1 - Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

From the above text, we can see God promised to be our God and Father, and be with us, and we, be His people and children on the conditions (v17) that we stay off unrighteousness (be separate from the unbelievers or be no longer of the world, and “touch” no unclean thing), and to have ourselves cleansed of contamination to the body and spirited soul, in our perfecting of holiness in the fear of God (KJV uses "fear of God", instead of "reverence for God").  We need to stay off unrighteousness, and we need to have ourselves cleansed of contamination to our body and spirited soul.

The Apostle Paul was urging us to perfect holiness.  So, we must try to remain in the high end of the spectrum with an eye for perfection, i.e.  stay high and aim for 10.  Ask Jesus for forgiveness, each time we faltered, try again and try harder, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  One important difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the former has the Holy Spirit while the latter does not.   I think the more holy you get, the more sensitive to the Holy Spirit you become, and the easier you get a conviction that something is not holy.  But be careful not to hide under the excuse of “I did not feel any conviction” and refuse to repent and leave an unholy situation.  Very often, it is not that you did not feel any conviction but it was that you ignored it when it first came to you.  Believe me, when you did that for another time or two, often you would no longer think the particular situation was wrong; you have numbed your conscience.

Grow, you must
Recently, an itinerant preacher of many years said a very important thing to me, he said that God can even use a person with poor spiritual state to do his work but for continual moves in the Spirit for the Lord, the person must grow. I think he hit the nail right on the head. Jesus came into our lives when we were yet sinners – in poor spiritual state.

Also, from time to time we heard of or even witnessed isolated but unmistakable moves of God through certain individuals (God worked through them) when such persons apparently were not “very righteous”. I think in many cases, such moves remained isolated (i.e. God did not move through the individuals anymore or on a consistent basis) because the individuals did not grow in the areas that God expects.

Holiness is one area, I believe we must grow. That we are not yet perfect, God knows, but Paul is right to say that we are to perfect holiness. I now believe that if we want God to use us consistently in supernatural work (in particular), we have to be perfecting holiness. A person who “does” supernatural work consistently, bears the name of God all over him, do you think an unholy man will be allowed to be the bearer of the name of the holy God?

Also, God does allow us to go through situations which we may not like, to cause us to grow, including in the area of holiness. Hebrews 12:10 - Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

What must we do?
Firstly, we need to understand what falls under the area of holiness. Secondly, we need to know how we could get defiled and guard those gates. So, there will be a 3rd article on this subject of holiness.

For now, let us “chew” on this subject. For a Christian, I am saying there is no-auto refreshing of holiness. If you faltered, repent, get refreshed, try harder to stay holy with the help of the Holy Spirit. God expects us to grow but not necessarily expecting that you have arrived (we all grow at different rates and are at different stages of our growth, God may expect more from certain individuals, but the same is not expected of you, at least not yet). But do not take the grace of God for granted. Do not give up trying either, that is what the Devil wants you to do. You are on the way of Holiness, do not let anyone or anything get you off the highway. If you are not yet a Christian, you need to be one before you can travel on this Way. Talk to a Christian on how to know Jesus.


Not that I have achieved perfection, but that we may all learn and press on (Phil 3:14),
Anthony Chia, high.expressions - perfecting holiness is a high expression to God

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Way of Holiness - The Way of the Lord

Holiness - fundamental nature attribute of God
What is the most fundamental nature attribute of God?
I believe it is holiness.

In the Book of Revelation, last book of the Bible, John, the author, was taken up and brought before God in His throne room in Heaven. This is what he said he saw, “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle” (Rev 4:6b-7).

What were the creatures doing, day and night, before God? In verse 8, we read, Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

To me, this painted to us, holiness is one of, if not, the most fundamental nature attribute of God. Just imagine, day and night the creatures never stop saying the words, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah witnessed the same
In Isaiah Chapter 6, this is what we read,
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory." (Isaiah 6:1-3)”

Although, in this case, it may not be in Heaven, all the same, when God is on His throne, the creatures are there saying the same thing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord [God] Almighty”.

Woe to me!
How then must we respond to this knowledge?
Isaiah’s cry gave us the clue. This is his (Isaiah) cry,

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." (Isaiah 6:5)”

What happened afterward was this:
“Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." (Isaiah 6:7)”

[It is interesting to note that before Jesus became the Atonement by dying on the cross, during the time of Isaiah, guilt could be taken away and sin atoned for, in this way. In our time, it is best to leave any other way apart from the atonement by Christ, Jesus, to the prerogative and sovereignty of God.]

Revelation changes life
This revelation changed Isaiah’s life. With this encounter, God commissioned Isaiah as one of the most important prophets of Old Testament times. Isaiah also went on to prophesize about the Messiah (Isaiah 53 for example).

Way of Holiness
I believe Isaiah also prophesized to us the way of the Redeemed of the Lord. This is found in Isaiah 35:8-10

And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it. [a]

No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,

and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

a. Isaiah 35:8 Or / the simple will not stray from it

It is interesting to see what, some of the Bible scholars said concerning the verses:

Wesley's Notes
A way - The high - way and the way are not to be taken for two different ways, but for one and the same way, even a cause[wa]y, which is raised ground, and a way.  Holiness - The people (walking in it) shall be all righteous.  For those - But this way shall be appropriated to those persons above - mentioned [earlier verses]; the weak, and blind, and lame, whom God will lead and save. Though fools - The way shall be so plain and strait[straight?], that even the most foolish travellers cannot easily mistake it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
highway-such a causeway (raised way, from a Hebrew root, "to cast up") as was used for the march of armies; valleys being filled up, hills and other obstructions removed (Isa 62:10; compare Isa 40:3, 4).

way of holiness-Hebraism for "the holy way." Horsley translates, "the way of the Holy One;" but the words that follow, and Isa 35:10, show it is the way leading the redeemed back to Jerusalem, both the literal and the heavenly (Isa 52:1; Joe 3:17; Re 21:27); still Christ at His coming again shall be the Leader on the way, for which reason it is called, "The way of the Lord" (Isa 40:3; Mal 3:1).

Mathew Henry's Concise Commentary
The way of holiness is the way of God's commandment; it is the good old way. And the way to heaven is a plain way. Those knowing but little, and unlearned, shall be kept from missing the road. It shall be a safe way; nothing can do them any real hurt. Christ, the way to God, shall be clearly made known; and the way of a believer's duty shall be plainly marked out. Let us then go forward cheerfully, assured that the end of this way shall be everlasting joy, and rest for the soul.

This is how I view the Way of Holiness
1. I do not think the word “Holiness” is just a name, i.e. it is not just to name the way. Rather, it tells of how the way is to be, i.e. the way is about holiness.
2. It is the way of the Redeemed of the Lord, i.e. the way of the Redeemed is holiness.
3. It is the way travelled by the Redeemed of the Lord. The unclean do not journey on this way. Neither do the lion or ferocious beast (you can call them, the principalities of darkness) travel on it.
4. Even the simple can journey on it. Everyone just need to (& must) follow Jesus who is the Leader on this highway.
5. Even though the unclean, the lion, the ferocious beast do not journey on this highway, they are trying to get you off the highway.
6. The destination of this highway is the Kingdom of God in Heaven, the New Jerusalem, the everlasting joy.


Holiness is reiterated in New Testament
1 Peter 1:14-16
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he [the Lord] who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

2 Corinthians 7:1
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

What are “these promises”? The preceding verses tell us that if we separate ourselves from wickedness, from darkness, and from idolatry, God will receive us, and God will be a Father to us and we will be his children.

Hebrews 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:10
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

Conclusion
Are you journeying on this highway – Way of Holiness? If you are redeemed, you ought to be on this highway. If you have not accepted the Lord as your personal Lord and Saviour, you need to do that first before you can get onto this highway. Talk to a Christian if you have not yet accepted Jesus into your life. Do not let anyone or anything get you off the highway. Always remember, God said, “Be holy, because I am holy”.


Reverently,
Anthony Chia, high.expressions – Not that I have arrived, but that we may encourage each other to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14). In fact, Lord, help me to be holy as you are holy.

PS1: How come this article is here? I believe the practice of holiness is a high expression to God. If it is in the will of the Father, maybe I will write more on this subject in the future.

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