Several years ago, while boarding a plane, a family asked me if I would switch seats so they could sit together. I gladly gave them my seat and took one directly in front of them. Before the plane left the ground, the eight-year-old boy began kicking and pushing on my seat with his feet. This continued throughout the three-hour flight. The mother was sitting right next to her son, but she just sat there as if she did not care whether or not he behaved. But it mattered to me….

Some have concluded that since God has already forgiven believers all their sins, past, present, and future, that He doesn’t care how they live after salvation. However, Scripture informs us that He cares very much how believers live after salvation! He has repeatedly instructed us that we are to live apart from sin. In Romans 6:1-2, the Apostle Paul asks: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Apparently, believers at Rome were confused about whether living in sin mattered because some had misrepresented what Paul taught about the grace of God. In Romans 3:8 he responded: “And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come?” Paul wanted them to know it simply was not true that he taught that it didn’t matter to God if we continued to live in sin. He told the saints at Thessalonica: “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth [this instruction], despiseth not man, but God, who hath given unto us His Holy Spirit” (I Thessalonians 4:7-8). They needed to know he was speaking with divine authority when he instructed all believers to live apart from sin. The saints at Corinth had fared no better. Even though they were saved, the two letters to this church describe a lifestyle of horrendous sin. So, Paul wrote them, saying: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit [our minds], perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Corinthians 7:1).

God cares how we live after salvation. If you’re allowing known sin in your life, make a decision right now, while God is speaking to your heart, to turn to a higher standard of holiness.