More good stuff from Ben Witherington today on "
A Normal Christian Life":
...There is no spiritual formation practice more important than the active loving of God with whole heart and neighbor and others as self. And the interesting by-product of such loving is that we become holy people, we become set apart for God, we become like God who is both holy and love. God is not holiness without love (thank goodness), nor is God love without holiness (praise God). God's love is always a holy, sanctifying, sin-conquering sin-exterminating love.
Sometimes what happens in discussions about Christian maturity and spiritual formation, is that instead of being encouraged, people get discouraged, because they think that they are being exhorted to become super-Christians, to strive for a sort of spiritual life which frankly they don't see themselves ever achieving. They are not working on sainthood, they are working on just being a good Christian person, and it's all they have time for. For those who feel that way, hear the good news---Spiritual formation is not an achievement, it is what goes on invisibly ever day in the life of the true believer, even when that believer is unaware of it. God in the person of the Spirit is at work in us every single day, transforming us...
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