Day 24 of Illumination: True enlightenment brings shalom.

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [that is, separate you from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and undamaged—consecrated to Him—set apart for His purpose]; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and [be found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭23‬ ‭AMP‬‬

We often hear the term, “integrity.” Most of us imagine this to mean that a person’s behavior is consistent with their principles or core values. Additionally, we imagine that those values and principles are “good.” However, given the absolute meaning of the word, you could say a person has integrity if they are adhering to their core principles/values of self aggrandizement, self-enrichment, dominance over others, and so on. So actually, what is lacking in many of the people we look at and see as having no integrity, is core principles and values consistent with God’s righteousness. They are being consistent, it’s just that they are consistently (in every area of their being) bad.

There are many reasons why the religious leaders of the Jews rejected Jesus. One of those reasons was that He made statements such as this:

““But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭20 NLT

Now, what Jesus is saying here is that the righteousness, or so-called righteousness, of the religious leaders was one of appearances. The actual fact was that they gave themselves all kinds of allowances to get around The Law; they spoke a good game, but their heart was not in it.

“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus challenged the duplicity of the religious leaders. He knew their hearts and knew that all of the things they were speaking (in terms of The Law), were basically being broken in terms of their thoughts, attitudes and desires.

“You, therefore, will be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭48‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Through the cross, the Lord has made it possible for us to have God’s laws written on our heart. That is, by way of the Holy Spirit we can be directly connected to the Lord’s thoughts and motivations.

“But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In our opening scripture we see Paul expressing his desire that the people at the church in Corinth would be sanctified (set apart from sin and prepared for good works), not only in terms of what they say, do or think, but in all of these areas.

What the Lord truly wants for us is “shalom.” This Hebrew word indicates a state of peace coming from our being made whole: nothing broken or missing. It expresses total tranquility and prosperity of spirit.

As we near the end of our “25 Days of Illumination,” you must understand that true spiritual enlightenment comes when we are open to God’s core values and principles: His righteousness. As we hear and receive what God is saying, as we come to reflect His very nature, then we will truly have shalom.

We light a twenty-fourth candle of illumination today by knowing this:

True enlightenment brings shalom.

#25daysofillumination