What does Tribe teach about being set apart?
Drawn from the message 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 being set apart starts with a clear distinction between churchgoers and Christians. Brian has been direct that going to church does not make someone a Christian any more than walking into a garage makes someone a car. The foundation of holiness, he taught, is first a honest reckoning with falling short of God's standard and bringing that to the cross. Everything else flows from that.
From there, Brian worked through the word 'holy' in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, explaining that in the Greek it carries the meaning of being consecrated, purified, and set apart for God's use. To make it concrete, he held up two identical batteries and separated one from the other. Nothing about the battery itself changed, but it was now dedicated to a different purpose. That picture runs through the teaching here: being set apart is not about being a fundamentally different kind of person by nature, it is about being separated from the common and given over to God. The same idea carried into 2 Timothy 2:20-21, where Paul uses the image of gold and silver utensils in a wealthy home set apart for special use, alongside wood and clay ones for everyday tasks. Brian noted that a fork cannot change what it is made of, but people can, because Jesus makes someone a new creation.
The teaching also pushed back on a specific lie. Brian named the enemy's strategy as reminding people of their past failures to convince them they have disqualified themselves from being used by God. The word 'called' in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, he pointed out, carries the meaning of an invitation in the Greek. Holiness at Tribe is not framed as a cold demand from a distance but as something God both invites people into and equips them to live.
Taught from 1 Thessalonians 4:7 · 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 · Romans 6:12-14 · 2 Timothy 2:20-21 · Luke 14
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
Messages that go deeper
- 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.