Be Holy

SLIDE 1

Be holy, because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16)

Be holy. God tells us to be holy. Why? Because God is holy. We are to be like God. That’s our goal – to be more like God. And since God is holy, we are to be holy.

If that sounds like more than you are capable of doing you’re right. God sets a very high standard that none of us can ever reach. Some think it isn’t necessary. All I need to do is place my faith in Jesus. Some aren’t interested. As long as I’m going to heaven why bother doing anything more? Some think it’s too difficult. What’s the point of trying? Some think it smacks of legalism. Some think it’s an idea whose time has passed.

Therefore, the subject of holiness is often avoided. We don’t like talking about it. Talking about holiness only seems to point out our failures. We don’t seem to have any problems singing God’s holiness; we just don’t want to talk about holiness in our own lives. Perhaps is reminds us of the person who is “holier-than-thou!” Jesus refuted that kind of lifestyle as it was demonstrated by the scribes and the Pharisees.

All of these excuses for talking about holiness only ignore the teaching of scripture where God very plainly tells us that we are to be holy because he is holy. Would you say that you are living up to this standard God has set for us? Would you describe your life as being holy?

Before we go much further it would be good to define our terms. What does it mean to be holy? There are at least two basic definitions found in the Old Testament.

SLIDE 2 The word is first found in Genesis 2 with the description of creation. There, the word isn’t used to describe God or a person, but a day.

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:2)

How did God make the seventh day – Saturday – holy? Saturday is no different than any other day. It has the same number of hours, minutes, and seconds. The difference is that God made Saturday a day of rest. SLIDE 3 God made Saturday holy by setting it apart from the other six days. No work was to be done one that day. In Exodus 20, in the Ten Commandments, God says about this day:

8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy [by keeping it separate from the other days of the week]. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

God made Saturday holy by setting it apart from the other days. All the other days are the same because on Sunday through Friday you work. You make a living. But on Saturday, the seventh day, you take a rest. You don’t do any work. To be holy is to be set apart for a special purpose or use.

Perhaps you have some special dishes at home that are only used on special occasions. They have been set apart. While you wouldn’t use the word holy to describe them, they have been made holy because they have been set apart from all the other everyday dishes for special use. You take extra good care of those dishes.

SLIDE 4 Another meaning of the word holy can be found in Exodus 19 when the Israelites were camped at the base of Mount Sinai before God gave the Ten Commandments.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them [make them holy] today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes.” (Exodus 19:10)

They are being made holy by cleaning themselves and their clothes. That’s part of the meaning for holiness. It’s being purified from that which makes you unclean. In the Old Testament law God gave long lists of things that could make them unclean – eating the wrong thing or touching the thing. And if they were unclean they couldn’t come before God to worship him. All this helped point to the holiness of God.

SLIDE 5 God is holy. He is completely separated from that which he made because he is so much greater than that which he made. He is also pure. There is no sin in God. In 1 Samuel 2, Hannah prayed thanking God for her son saying:

There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. (1 Samuel 2:2)

If you read Greek and Roman myths and the gods they worshiped, you find they weren’t much different than people except for their strength and they couldn’t die. But they were often as bad, or worse, than the people that worshiped them. That’s not true with the Lord our God. God is perfect. He’s sinless. Everything God does is right. God is holy and he calls us to be holy.

Be holy, because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16)

SLIDE 6 So what does that mean practically in our lives from day to day? How are we to be holy? How do we live holy lives? At times people have concluded that to be holy we must completely separate ourselves from the world around us. Less than three hundred years after the resurrection of Jesus some of his followers were doing just that. In a desire to be holy they ran off to caves in deserts so they could be alone. They figured if they could just separate themselves from the pollution of the world they would be holy. But that’s not what Jesus taught. Jesus said that we are to be in the world without being part of it. He didn’t tell us to go live alone in caves or monasteries; he said we are to live in the world without living like the world.

At other times in history some have just refused to have anything to do with the world. They live in the world but have said if you partake of anything of the world it’s a sin. Then they came out with longs lists of things you weren’t allowed to do. You couldn’t go to movies, play pool, drink alcohol, or play cards – and the lists goes on indefinitely. They didn’t move to the desert and remove themselves from the world; they just acted like they were in a desert.

Neither of these approaches to holiness is biblical. Let me give you a visual illustration of what usually happens – and is a picture of what is happening too many today.

Let’s say this point is perfect holiness. This is God. This is our goal – to be holy as God is holy. At the other extreme is the devil – evil. Then we have ourselves, represented by this chair. Where would we go on this continuum? We’re not at either extreme. We know we aren’t perfectly holy, but were not completely evil either. We’ll put ourselves closer to God than the devil. Then there’s the world, our culture. Our culture is continually trying to get away from God. It’s doesn’t want to obey God. It doesn’t want to be holy.

The problem we have is when we connect ourselves to the world. We connect ourselves when we want to be accepted by the world or we want to be liked by like the world. We connect ourselves to the world when we want the things of the world more than we want the things of God or when we think the world will make us happier than God will make us. We may not be as sinful as the world. We may be holier than the world. However, when we connect ourselves to the world and the world moves further from God we are pulled along with it dragging us further from God. If all we do is look at the world we still look holier than it is. We aren’t as evil as it is. But since we’re focusing on the world we can’t see how far we are moving away from God.

SLIDE 7 How do we live holy lives? What does God want us to do? Let’s read some more from 1 Peter.

14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16)

Paul gives two important words in verse 14: obey and conform. We are to obey God and we are not to conform to evil desires.

First, Paul says we are to be obedient. Who are we to obey? We’re to obey God. In fact, Jesus said that if we love him we will obey him. Do you love Jesus? If you love him you will seek to obey him. If you don’t know what God wants don’t worry, just read the Bible and he’ll show you. The Bible gives several lists of activities and attitudes we shouldn’t participate in. There are four such lists in the New Testament. You can find them in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and the book of Revelation.

However, usually the problem isn’t that we don’t know what God wants us to; the problem is we just don’t want to obey what we already know. We want what we want because we think we know better than God what’s good for us or because we think God doesn’t want us to have any fun. The truth is God knows what’s best for us. God created us. Don’t you think he knows how best for us to live?

The second word Peter gives about being holy is “conforming.” Peter tells us not to conform to our evil desires. It’s so easy to give in to those desires and live like the world instead of obeying God. Throughout the Bible God calls us to live differently than the world and to control the desires of our bodies. Anyone who has ever tried to get in shape understands how difficult controlling our bodies can be. You may want to lose some weight or just exercise more so you can feel better. Whatever the goal self-control can be difficult. And it’s especially difficult when it comes to sin. Our natural bodies want to do what’s easy. We want to do what feels good. We want to do what our friends do. Peter said don’t. And in Romans 12 Paul wrote about not conforming to the pattern of this world. Instead, we are to be holy because God is holy.

Remember those two definitions for being holy: separate and pure. We are to be separate from the world – meaning we aren’t to live like the world – and we are to be pure – we are not to copy their sins. As Jesus put it, we are to live as salt and light in the world. We’re to be an example of what it looks like to follow God. But we can’t be salt and light if we talk and act just like the world does.

We need to understand, the purpose for holiness isn’t to draw attention to ourselves, to make ourselves look good, or to earn our salvation. The purpose of living holy lives is to make God look good.

But it’s hard. Can we even do it? Can we be holy? Let me give you another illustration, this one from track and field. The record for the high jump set in 1912 was 6ft 6 and 3/4 inches. It was not broken until 1989 when Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayer achieved a high jump of 8ft, a foot and a half higher than the 1912 record. He didn’t just beat the old record, he crushed it. Four years later Javier beat that record by a 1/4 of an inch with a jump of 8 feet and a quarter inch. The record has not been broken since 1993.

There are limits to what a person can achieve in their own strength. As Christians, as disciples of Jesus, there is only so much we can do in our pursuit of holiness. What we need is the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us to change and transform us. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians. This passage contains one of those lists I mentioned earlier. But in this passage Paul doesn’t just tell us what not to do, he also tells us how to achieve our goal.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

Allow the Spirit of God to lead you. Submit to the Spirit and not to the desires of your body that you know God doesn’t want you doing. Trying to be holy on your own is like going on a diet and trying not to think about a hot fudge sundae. The more you try not to think about it the more you think about it. Instead, Paul suggests we think about the Spirit working in us.

Paul then gives the list. Here’s some of what we’re not supposed to be doing.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Paul is not saying that if you stop doing these things you’ll go to heaven. Nor is Paul talking to those who are tempted or has fallen in these things. Paul is talking to those who perpetually, habitually practice these things arrogantly, stubbornly, and with no desire to be set free from them. People who say, “I’m doing this stuff, like it or not,” will not inherit the kingdom of God.

After listing the negative, Paul lists the positive.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:22-26)

Walk in the Spirit. Simply do what the Lord tells you to do moment by moment -- whether it’s making a phone call to someone in need of encouragement, getting away for five minutes to pray, or chopping wood for someone in need.

Holiness is not a standard that’s too difficult for us to achieve if we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Don’t rely on your own strength, allow the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you, let the Holy Spirit change and transform you. We are not meant to live to please ourselves, we are meant to live in a way that is pleasing to God. If we rely on our own strength it’s impossible, but when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us he change and transform us.

The way we live our everyday lives needs to reflect the fact that in Christ, God’s holiness is our holiness. Our everyday lives needs to demonstrate the fact that in Christ, we have already been made holy. SLIDE 9

Be holy, because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16)

Ultimately, holiness is not about moral purity. Holiness is about union with God in Christ and sharing in Christ’s holiness. Holiness is about a life lived in grateful service to God and others, living according to God’s plan and purpose, bringing honor and glory to him.

John Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” once said:

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I will be. But thank God I am not what I used to be.

Are those words true of you this morning? We are not trying to live a holy life to earn our salvation – salvation is a free gift to all who trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Living a holy life is a natural response to being saved by God’s grace and filled with the Holy Spirit. It is also important to not give up when we mess up. When we fail, our response should be to confess the sin and keep moving forward in our Christian walk.