Be holy!

“Be holy for I am holy”! This is a command from God. The first time God says this is in the book of Leviticus which is the book that lays out the laws for the people of Israel that they shall obey while in the Promised Land. That commandment is a direct reflection to who God is. He is the reference of that command. It is not about us, rather it is all about Him. He goes on to say in Leviticus 11 that He is “the God who brought you out of Egypt to be your God” (Leviticus 11:45). If this God makes a demand on His people to be holy in the nation He has planted them in, then the least His people can do is to obey. The same should be true of us His people today, we should take God’s commands as what they are: commands. And commands are given to be obeyed not to be questioned. Therefore, what does it mean to be holy? Are those of us that are in Christ not already holy? Why should we pursue holiness? It is those questions that will be my focus throughout this post.

As already established, holiness comes from God, He is the origin of holiness, He is holiness. To be holy means to be “set apart” since God is completely set apart. He is different from anybody, He has no equal and there is none like Him. In holiness there is also the idea of being blameless, without sin or reproach which is what God is. Indeed, in Him there is no sin, there is no deceit, it is not a language that God understands. One of the first things that God does when He creates His world is to make it according to His purpose, as He delights. The first time we hear of the word holy is in Genesis 2 verse 3 where we read “and God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done”. You see here that the seventh day was “set apart” from the rest of the days because of the fact that God rested on that day. It is therefore evident that those that are holy are set apart, they are not to be mixed up with the rest, they are to be different. That is why God gave the Law to the people of Israel so that they would be “set apart”. Some of those laws were requiring the Israelites to dress differently, to eat only certain types of food, to observe certain feasts, to have a day of rest dedicated for the Lord, and much more. Obeying these commandments is what separated Israel from other nations. The more they obeyed, the more they were approved by God and the more they were blessed.

When Jesus came into this world he brought God’s holiness with him. As the book of Colossians puts it “for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:19) that is Jesus. By dying then on the cross, Jesus exchanged our filthiness with his holiness, his blamelessness. Additionally, when Jesus took the chastisement that we deserved, he made a way for you and I to stand in the presence of God and not die, he made a way for us to be holy, permanently. We became righteous because the righteousness of Christ was transferred to us. So yes, in Christ we are holy, we have been set apart from the rest of men, we are the chosen ones. In the words of Peter, we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness (1 Peter 2:9). Although we are holy in Christ, we often do not know what that means and whether there is anything more we can do or should do. We seem to use our holiness as a title, or wear it like a garment and nothing else but it is much more than what we have made it to be.

Since we are holy why must we pursue holiness again? Why seek what you already have? I believe it is simple, we are holy but we are not yet walking in that holiness. It is as though we have been given a new identity but we have not yet began to embrace that new identity. Just like a prisoner who has been set free and is not yet living in his freedom we too, despite being holy have not yet began to walk in our newness. This new identity living requires a change in habits, attitudes, likes and dislikes, basically a change from all that we once were. As we begin to embrace this new identity by living holy, we bear the image of God properly and we honour Him. Walking in holiness then, is obeying God; It is developing and displaying the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22); it is walking in humility, putting others above yourself; It is having the mind of God, having our thoughts and actions aligned with His; it is imitating Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

The key here is to seek God and the simplest way to do that is through His word. God in His love has given us His instructions which is found in His word. We ought to heed commandments like the one God gave to Joshua saying “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it” (Joshua 1:9). The more we seek God through His word, by meditating it, living it, breathing it, the more we will obey God. As we obey God, we get to experience His blessings on us but even more than His blessings we get to experience Him, we get to have a foretaste of heaven because there, we will be with God in His presence all the time and we will never run out of things to discover about Him. This is glorious! I cannot wait for that heavenly experience but in the meantime, I get to have a glimpse of it as I cherish the Father and spend time with Him in His word and in prayer every day. May you find peace and joy in this command of being holy as you let the Holy Spirit guide you in its application.