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Holiness.
It seems like this word gets treated like a dirty word in our culture as though holiness itself is a bad thing. And that is a trick of our spiritual enemy who wants to separate us from God through any and all means. This includes the principle of holiness that we find in the Bible used to describe God such as in Exodus chapter 15 verse 11 which asks “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” In this verse, we see that God’s nature of holiness is a source of awe and fascination to the people of Israel. (One quick note I need to make here. When they mention the word “gods” they use the Hebrew word “el” which means people in position and those with power and authority. This is also the same word used to refer to demons and false gods such as when they talk about idols.) So what exactly is this holiness?
Word Study Time
In Hebrew, the word is “qodesh” and it means to be separate or sacred. You can also see that it has the implied meaning of being different from others of similar stature. And that applies well to a Christian’s life because of what it says about us in 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 16. Peter is quoting scripture from the Old Testament where God is addressing the nation of Israel saying “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” The scripture being quoted is Leviticus 11:44.
While Leviticus has been jokingly called the most boring book of the old testament it is still quite informative since it is about all the laws of ceremonial purity and legal justice. This so-called boring book shows the high standards that God demands and helps us to truly understand the need for Jesus to be our sin offering. It is only through the covering of His blood on the cross that we are able to be made pure in God’s eyes.
Going back to the words being used the verse in Leviticus is “qadosh” which also means to be set apart just like “qodesh.” As I write this I’m getting the feeling that one of these is a derivative of a base but that’s not important at this moment in time. In the New Testament, they use the Greek word “hágios” which also means to be set apart or sacred but it is also used to describe being pure in spirit.
When I started this I stated that holiness seems to be treated like a dirty word in our modern vernacular. And from speaking with my pastor about this they pointed out that it is because of how it has been used in the past with holiness movements that have been legalistic. These are the ones that say you can’t do any work on Sunday, women must wear dresses, you can’t wear shorts that go above your knees, and I’m certain if you wanted you could keep this list going with other examples. What my pastor pointed out is that these moments while well-intentioned, lost, or rather, forgot something about holiness. It comes from the heart of who we are. Their focus was on the outward appearance of holiness and thus got caught in the trap of legalism. The very same trap that made the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and age stumble and cause others to do so as well.
Legalism can be easily described as following the rule of the law while missing out on the spirit of the law.
A simple illustration would be working on the Sabbath day. A day that was given to us so that we would take a break from all of our work and learn to rest while also focusing our minds on the Lord who enables us to do our work. When Jesus healed a man with a lame hand the Pharisees were furious because He worked and did a miracle on the Sabbath. Forgetting that the Sabbath was a day to glorify God. Those who had the proper heart worshipped and praised God for the healing that had been provided while those who didn’t have their heart in alignment with God became angry that their laws had been broken. Legalism is a dangerous thing because we can easily let our own set of habits trump what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. The habit becomes a substitute for God in our lives and turns into an idol.
Firstly I want to say that God is not one who only values one thing, your actions or your heart’s condition. He values both of these things in our lives. But the focus is on changing the heart because it causes the outward actions to change. There are verses in scripture that talk about being able to properly judge another person and, before you get offended, let me remind you that the verb form to judge is not synonymous with condemnation. It means to make an assessment of or to come to a conclusion based on available information relevant to your situation. In those verses, we are shown that the actions a person takes will reveal much of what is in their hearts. As humans, we are forced to use what we can see from a person’s actions because we cannot do what God can do and that is to look at the heart directly.
When God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint the new king of Isreal, after Saul had lost favor in the eyes of God, he went to Bethlehem in Judea to the house of Jesse. Once there he saw the eldest of Jesse’s 8 sons, Eliab. Samuel saw the man and thought this was the next king. But God told him, through the Holy Spirit, that he mustn’t use the appearance of a man to judge them because this man had been rejected by God due to his heart’s condition. The account of this is recorded in 1st Samuel chapter 16 verse 7 and in that section, the word for heart is “levav.” A word that means the inner man or the mind and soul of a person. Including how a person thinks and thus how they make their decisions.
Making a decision means that we consider what is important to us and how we want to achieve it. There are many factors that play into this such as; what we value, how we see things in life, whether we are willing to receive other input, whether we will put our own desires aside to do what is better in the long run, is our spirit humble enough to submit to God. This issue is what caused Saul to fail and is why it was so important for the person in charge to have the right attitude toward God.
If we look at the case studies of David and Saul we see what happens when a person is pursuing holiness in their lives. Saul didn’t pursue God with the same fervor that David did if he even made an extra effort to pursue God. David is called the man after God’s own heart. He made mistakes with the primary one being his affair with Bathsheba and killing her husband to hide the fact that he impregnated her. The key point is how he reacted to being confronted with his disobedience to the commands of God.
When King Saul was ordered to attack and kill off all of the Amalekites and leave none alive. He was not to allow the livestock and neither man nor woman or even young child to be spared. Before you say that this was unfair of God I will remind you that these people continually attacked Israel with the same amount of cruelty ever since they left Egypt. The Amalekites had received several centuries to turn from their wickedness but hadn’t done so. Saul didn’t do this and instead kept the best of the livestock for himself and the king and queen alive as trophies of war. Samuel comes in after the battle and delivers a message of the LORD’s judgment because of this disobedience after he tries to justify himself.
David however when confronted with his disobedience confesses and repents with bitterness. In the Psalms, he famously proclaims “Against you and you alone have I sinned.” David saw and understood the true error of his ways and it is because he was genuine in his repentance that forgiveness was granted. David valued holiness before God above all things in his life and it is seen in how the blessings of the LORD were provided to him.
I feel that it needs to be said that I am in no way promoting the “prosperity gospel” teachings that life will be just perfect because you decided to pursue holiness above all else. Jesus states in John chapter 15 verse 19 that those who follow Him will be hated by the world because they don’t belong to it. Because they have been called out of the world to be different even while they are in it.
Time for a real-life example. I want to say it was my sophomore year of high school when my lifestyle of holiness received some front-and-center attention. I did wrestling and on one of the bus rides home, I’d taken a stand against some behaviors that others were doing. A bit later that week at practice people were asking me questions. Some of the people who asked me questions had a genuine curiosity about what being a Christian meant in my lifestyle. While others were trying to entrap me with my words. I escaped those thanks to some spiritual insight from the Holy Spirit but it was fascinating how they asked questions about whether I drank, I lived in Germany where the drinking age was lower. One of the girls who was in my health class asked if being a Christian meant I was sexually abstinent when the subject of sex came up. My answer was a simple yes. When they asked me why exactly I cited the Biblical teachings on sex being meant for a married man and woman only.
Humility and Holiness
I end this here by saying that while there will be times when it feels awkward to not do what it feels like everyone else is doing for the sake of living a holy life before God I can tell you that it is worth it.
Your behaviors become a silent witness that is seen by others even if you don’t say anything. And it is not just your behaviors but also your way of speaking that has the same impact on those around you. Holiness is a matter of the heart and the more you pursue God with the desire to grow more into His image and likeness the more it will impact the way you live your life in both the good and hard times. You will be able to say genuinely “praise the LORD” at all times of your life. Praising Him not because of what He does for you but because of who He is.
In 1st Peter chapter 3, we are commanded to keep a clear conscience before God so that should we become slandered and reviled the people who do so are put to shame. We have done nothing wrong and God will uphold that before others so long as we keep on going in the ways of the LORD. But Peter also follows this up by saying if it should be God’s will that we suffer then it is better to suffer for doing good in the eyes of God than to suffer for doing evil. And humility is a vital discipline to develop for this to be possible.
There is a tie between humility and holiness as the former allows for the holiness to be developed within us. Humility enables us to acknowledge our need for the spiritual transformation promised to us in Romans 12:2. “Do not be conformed, dear brothers, to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds in Christ. Then you will know His good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Scripture often uses the metaphor of our spirit being like valuable gold that needs to be refined in a fire to have its true beauty revealed. While most everyone knows and understands that it takes a lot of heat to refine the gold in the crucible it seems that something else has been forgotten by them. Arriving at the crucible is only the final step of the process. Gold ore needs to be found, extracted, broken into smaller chunks, and then delivered to the refiner. And the process of refining the gold can take several heatings before it is truly ready for its purpose. All of this is to help you understand that our development requires patience and trust in who God is. In order to endure, we need to have the proper mindset and that is determined by our mental focus.
Paul understood the importance of being aware and decisive of our thoughts. That’s why in Philippians he reminds the believers in chapter 4 verse 8 to focus their minds on what is true, honorable, just, pure, things that are lovely, the things that are commendable according to the standards of God, and anything truly worthy of praise. Focusing on these things allows for holiness to grow and have dominion in our lives gaining a stronghold that we can take shelter in when we go through those times of struggle. He tells them to focus on what is true because God is truth and what He said He will do is going to happen. God is honorable and the rest of the adjectives in his short list.
Psalm 91 is an interesting one because it has two parts to it but it has one solidifying message. The first half is what the LORD will do for the one who has pursued Him genuinely and the second half is what He says about them. Here is what verse 14 says and remember this is the beginning of the section where God is speaking directly. “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.”
Until next time, Courage and Godspeed.