What does Tribe teach about holiness?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on holiness starts with a distinction that matters before anything else. Brian Hunter points out that going to church does not make someone a Christian any more than walking into a garage makes you a car. A person meets Jesus as Savior when they are honest about having fallen short of God's standard, bring that burden to the cross, and receive the forgiveness Jesus offers. Out of gratitude for a debt paid that they could never pay themselves, the only reasonable response is to offer their whole life back to him. Holiness grows out of that relationship, not the other way around. As Brian puts it, "Religion demands outward adherence. Jesus invites us into relationship that evokes inward holiness."
The word holy itself, in the Greek, means to consecrate, to purify, to set apart and dedicate entirely to the Lord. Brian has illustrated this with two identical batteries: nothing about either one is physically different, but the moment you separate one and mark it for a single purpose, that one is holy and the other is common. The danger he names is getting consecrated and then drifting back into the common pile, becoming indistinguishable again. Romans 6 and 2 Timothy 2 both press the same point from different angles: believers can change what they are made of because Jesus makes someone a new creation, and the enemy's strategy is to convince people they have disqualified themselves from being used for anything higher. Brian is clear that "God has invited us to live holy lives. He does not invite us into holiness without also equipping us to live holy."
The series has also worked through the practical side of how holiness actually happens on a Monday morning. Three ways Pastor Brian has named are making room for God when life is too packed to be hungry for him, renewing the mind with God's word so that scripture planted in reading can surface in the middle of a workday or a parenting moment, and embracing suffering the way an athlete disciplines the body, not as punishment but as formation. The word "called" in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 carries the sense of an invitation, not a threat, and the parable in Luke 14 where a king sends servants out to people who never expected to be invited shows what kind of God is doing the calling.
Taught from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 · Romans 6:12-14 · 2 Timothy 2:20-21 · Romans 12:2 · Matthew 11:28-30
“Religion demands outward adherence. Jesus invites us into relationship that evokes inward holiness.”
From Called to Holiness
The passage taught · 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
1 Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.
2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- August 26, 2026 Called to Holiness Brian Hunter walks through 1 Thessalonians 4:7, showing that God's call to holy living is an invitation he equips us for, not a demand we have to meet on our own.
- July 26, 2026 The How of Holiness A Wyoming pastor walks through three practical ways to pursue holiness, drawing from Matthew 11 and the idea that God's invitation is not a demand but a calling.
- July 19, 2026 Called To Holiness Brian Hunter walks through 1 Thessalonians 4:7, showing that God's call to holy living is an invitation he equips us for, not a demand we meet on our own.
Mentioned along the way
- March 10, 2025 Consecrated Through the Blood ｜ Renee Renee shares her testimony and traces Jesus through Leviticus, showing how sacrifice, holiness, and God's love point forward to Christ.