7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:6-7 (NKJV)
     Ok, here is a big word, sanctification.  Yes, I know it’s a biggy, so here is a definition, “It is the putting to death of my free will for the faithful obedience of Christ’s commands.”(Blount).
     You see as we walk in the light as He is in the light we will become more and more like Him, and less and less like what we were.  Sanctification is a process that takes place in us when we continue to be enlightened by His Word.  
     But do remember this, it is HIS work that is sanctifying you.  Yes what you do through obedience has an impact—if it is done for His glory and not your own.  Why? Because we were chosen for His glory:
     13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth
2 Thess 2:13 (NASB77)
11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Heb 2:10-11 (NASB77)
     He also preserves us.
      23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
1 Thess 5:23-24 (NASB77)
     We are to pursue being like Him.
     9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him —11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
Col 3:9-11 (NASB77)
      1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk ), that you may excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
1 Thess 4:1-8 (NASB77)
     Even though we are called to be live sanctified and we have been sanctified by the work of Christ—we will never be able to be perfectly and completely sanctified till the future when we are with Him.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:8 (NASB77)
12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
Phil 3:12-16 (NASB77)

Keep pressing on.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1.3