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 two words from 1 Thessalonians 4:7, 'called' and 'holy,' and what those words actually mean in the Greek rather than what English readers tend to assume. Brian Hunter has worked through both in detail. Holy, in the Greek, means to consecrate, to purify, to set apart and dedicate something entirely to the Lord. The picture he used was two identical batteries. Nothing about either one is different by nature, 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 pointed to is getting consecrated and then drifting back into the common pile, becoming indistinguishable again.
The word 'called' carries the sense of an invitation, not a threat or a bare command. Brian draws a sharp line here: as he put it, 'Religion demands outward adherence. Jesus invites us into relationship that evokes inward holiness.' That shift matters because it changes the whole posture of a person trying to live this way. God is not posting a standard from a distance and waiting to see who makes it. The teaching in 1 Thessalonians, as Brian reads it, is that 'God has invited us to live holy lives. He does not invite us into holiness without also equipping us to live holy.' The 2 Timothy 2 image of utensils in a wealthy home, some gold and silver for special use, some wood and clay for ordinary use, carries the same weight. A fork cannot change what it is made of, but a person can, because Jesus makes someone a new creation.
On the practical side, the teaching has pointed to three movements: making room for God by clearing space in a life that is otherwise too full to be hungry, renewing the mind with scripture so the word can surface later in ordinary moments, and accepting that some suffering is part of the process rather than a sign something has gone wrong. Romans 12:2 and 1 Corinthians 9:27 both got time in that conversation. The thread running through all of it is that holiness is not something a person manufactures by trying harder or by showing up more often. Brian has said plainly that going to church a lot does not make you a Christian, any more than going into the garage makes you a car. It begins with an honest reckoning at the cross and grows from gratitude for a debt paid that no one could have paid themselves.
Taught from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 · Romans 6:12-14 · 2 Timothy 2:20-21 · Romans 12:2 · 1 Corinthians 9:27
“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.