神的旨意就是要你们成为圣洁。（帖前四3）
死的一面。在成圣的工夫上，神不但在生方面对付我们，也要在死方面对付我们。很多人在死里停留太久，以致死气沉沉。成圣之前，必有一场生死战，必有某些东西拖着我们，叫我们厌恶主。当神的灵向我们启示成圣的意思，争战就开始了。“人到我这里来……若不恨（原文）自己的性命，就不能作我的门徒。”
在成圣的过程中，神的灵把我的外衣脱掉，只剩下我“自己”，就是到了死地。我甘愿单做自己吗？再没有别的了——没有朋友、没有父亲、没有弟兄、没有自我的筹算，单单准备去死，这就是成圣的条件。怪不得主耶稣说：“我来不是叫地上太平，乃是叫地上动刀兵。”这就是战争所在，许多人就在此扑倒：我们不肯在这点上与主耶稣的死联合。我们会说：“这个太严厉了，他不能冀求我这样做。”我们的主的确是严厉的，他的确要求我们如此行。
我愿不愿意单单做“自己”，脱去一切人对我的看法，以及我自己对自己的看法，然后把这赤裸的“己”交给神？我若这样行，神就使我全然成圣。从此，在我生命中，除了神以外，一切都变得不重要了。我若求神：“主啊，指示我成圣之道。”他就指示我。成圣就是与耶稣合而为一，他不是把一些东西放进我里面；乃是他自己在我里面。
July 22 Sanctification
“This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3
The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Many of us spend so much time in the place of death that we get sepulchral. There is always a battle royal before sanctification, always something that tugs with resentment against the demands of Jesus Christ. Immediately the Spirit of God begins to show us what sanctification means, the struggle begins. “If any man come to Me and hate not . . his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
The Spirit of God in the process of sanctification will strip me until I am nothing but “myself,” that is the place of death. Am I willing to be “myself,” and nothing more – no friends, no father, no brother, no self-interest – simply ready for death? That is the condition of sanctification. No wonder Jesus said: “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us faint. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus on this point. “But it is so stern,” we say; “He cannot wish me to do that.” Our Lord is stern; and He does wish us to do that.
Am I willing to reduce myself simply to “me,” determinedly to strip myself of all my friends think of me, of all I think of myself, and to hand that simple naked self over to God? Immediately I am, He will sanctify me wholly, and my life will be free from earnestness in connection with every thing but God.
When I pray – “Lord, show me what sanctification means for me,” He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus Christ puts into me: it is Himself in me. (1 Cor. 1:30.)