i'm convinced.

Top two motivations for holiness:

2.) effectiveness in ministry. when i see the need around me, when i see Christians who need to be discipled, when i see how much work needs to be done, i am motivated to obey the Lord. i can't preach a sermon while i am feeling shameful for how i've been living. i can't minister to a woman on the streets when i'm stuck in sin. that would be hypocrisy-- which is possibly the most hated quality ever.
but i want to be used by the Lord, and i want to see His kingdom come-- so i want to be blameless and pure.

1.) intimacy with the Lord. the conviction and unrest that comes from living in sin makes it unbearable to connect with the Lord. as Michael Collins says, "obedience equals intimacy." when i am obeying Him, it is showing that i love Him, and then i am close to Him in a way that i could never be if i was being disobedient.

my friend, Shaw Coleman, commented on my last post something profound that supports this #1 reason for being clean:

I was musing on this today, and it made me wonder if I'm going about things the wrong way. As in, am I using my relationship with Jesus to make myself 'clean,' just so I can be clean, or am I wanting to become clean so I can have a relationship with God?

One had righteousness as an end in itself, the other has relationship as an end in itself.

I'm guessing what we should strive for is relationship with God, and 'cleanliness' will come as an expression of that.

very interesting.

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
Philippians 3:8-11

to know Christ is the number one reason to be holy.

ON THE FLIP SIDE
(there always seems to be a flip side...)
this doesn't contradict, it's merely a tension:

i have not made my way into the throne room by doing what is right.
i am only allowed to enter His presence with confidence because of the death of Christ. no other reason.

so i recognize that the real way to know Him and be intimate with Him is by way of the blood of Jesus. i can't make my own way.

but the tension still stands--
when i lived in sin, i couldn't bring myself to meet with Him. He is too perfect, and i felt ashamed, and uneasy because i knew what He wanted me to stop doing. i couldn't meet with Him confidently, because i was convicted.

interesting.

i'm motivated to be holy. those two reason are the reasons i exist-- they motivate me like nothing else.