After we are saved, we too easily bring this concept of holiness
into the church. We surmise that the ideal life we failed to arrive at in
the past can now be reached, for now we are Christians. Formerly we
lived in sin and lust; we had no strength to overcome the weakness of
our flesh.
Now that we have believed in the Lord, we are well able to
live our ideal life. However, in such thinking there is a basic
difficulty: people forget that this ideal is of the world; it is not a
Christian ideal. The standard of too many Christians is their own
standard; oftentimes it is the same as that of unbelievers. Their ideal
life is the ideal of unbelievers. They have simply transferred their
former philosophy into the church. Because of this, it is necessary
that new believers be made clear on this point.