Daily Devotional
Holy in the Father's Name
Israel joined itself to Baal-peor not by open denial alone, but by eating at false altars, bending the knee, and taking into the body what belonged to demons. Judgment fell swiftly. Jeremiah likewise is made to live as a sign in a land ripening for ruin: when a people harden themselves, feast days cease, graves multiply, and excuses are exposed. The root is one. Men forsake the living God and fashion lies, whether from carved images or from their own thoughts. As Origen says, “Not only do people make gods for themselves from statues, but you will also find people making gods for themselves from their imaginations.”
Against this darkness stands the prayer of the Lord. Eternal life is not bare profession but to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Christ keeps his own in the Father’s name, and he asks not that they be taken out of the world, but kept from the evil one, sanctified in the truth, and made one. Clement says, “That they all may be one; as You, Father, art in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world also may believe that You have sent Me.”
So let no one think holiness a small matter. To belong to Christ is to be kept from idols, from fornication, from fellowship with false worship, from the inventions of a proud mind. Unity without truth is a lie; truth without obedience condemns the hearer. Therefore keep the name into which you were brought: pray faithfully, speak truth, flee uncleanness, and do not sit at tables that train the heart to betray God.
““If a person will make gods for himself.” Not only do people make gods for themselves from statues, but you will also find people making gods for themselves from their imaginations. Such people can imagine another god and creator of the world other than the divine plan of the world recorded by the Spirit, other than the true world.”
— Origen
“That they all may be one; as You, Father, art in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world also may believe that You have sent Me.”
— Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus)
For Reflection & Discussion
What table, entertainment, relationship, or practice do you need to leave this week because it joins you to uncleanness or false worship?
At what fixed hours today and tomorrow will you pray the Lord’s Prayer and John 17, asking to be kept in the Father’s name and sanctified in the truth?
What falsehood, grudge, or act of disunity must you confess and amend with a specific person so that your life does not deny the oneness for which Christ prayed?
Start the One-Year Plan Today — Completely Free
Read or listen through the whole Bible in 365 days with audio that highlights every word, a progress calendar, streaks, friends — and a devotional like this one at the end of every day.