What does it mean to be holy? What is holiness?
Holiness is like purity. To think of it in simple terms you could say that it is an incorruptible state of moral perfection. It not only does right, but it cannot do wrong. It cannot be stained by anything wrong, and it cannot tolerate anything that is not holy. It is the complete opposite of evil.
But holiness is more than just doing the right thing. Holiness is the most powerful force there is. But it’s power does not come from force - it comes from purity. It is incorruptible, so there is nothing that can stand against it or overcome it. It does not have to fight or strive, it just has to be. It’s like light in that it overcomes darkness just by being there. Darkness cannot exist in its presence. It does not have to fight against darkness, it just has to be there. So you might even say that evil is not a force that overcomes holiness, but evil is simply the absence of holiness, because evil can never overcome holiness wherever holiness is present.
God is holy, and the source of holiness. To be holy is to be godly. Holiness is ingrained into God’s essence; it is another thread in the fabric of His being. God’s holiness is peaceful. It is peace beyond all understanding. It is the peace that He gives to us when we love Him and follow Him.
Holiness is also strength. It is the strength to endure and overcome; to resist temptation and love sacrificially. It is the rock on which Jesus builds His church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.
We are also supposed to be holy. God calls us to be holy, just like Him. We are made in His image, and we are made holy through the forgiveness of our sins by our faith in Jesus Christ.
I want you to think about a passage from the Bible. I think this passage has been mis-interpreted throughout the past 2,000 years - maybe not by everyone, but by a lot of prominent people.
In Matthew 16:13 Jesus starts a conversation where He asks His disciples who people say He is, and they answer, “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet.” Then He asks them who they think He is, and Simon answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Then Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter (which means rock), and says “upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not overcome it.”
A lot of people think that Jesus put Peter in charge of the church in that moment, but I think that interpretation of this conversation is missing the point. What Peter just did was confessed His faith that Jesus is the Messiah, and it is by that same faith that we are made holy before God through the forgiveness of our sins. So I think what Jesus was saying, in a bit of a parable, was that the holiness that was just imparted to Simon (now Peter) through his professed faith in Jesus - that faith, and that imparted holiness - is the rock that the church will be built on, and that is what the powers of hell will not overcome; holiness, not the church as an institution and not the man Peter.
Holiness is both the standard and the power by which God rules over all His creation. God’s holiness sets Him apart from everything else that was created, because nothing can ever overcome His holiness. Anyone or anything that ever tries to challenge God’s holiness only finds themselves separated from Him. He is not injured or hindered by any opposition to His holiness - but the one who opposes Him is injured by the very act of opposition.
So, don’t oppose God. Follow Him. Trust Him. Surrender to Him. Love Him. And grow in reflecting His holiness into the world by being holy and shining your light - God’s light through you - into the darkness around you.
1 John 1:5 (NLT) This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
1 Samuel 2:2 (NLT) “There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
1 Peter 1:16 (NLT) since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Leviticus 19:2 (NLT) “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
Isaiah 57:15 (NLT) For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Revelation 4:8 (NLT) And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
Psalm 99:9 (NLT) Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy!
Isaiah 6:3 (NLT) And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Hebrews 12:14 (NLT) Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Exodus 15:11 (NLT) “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
Ephesians 1:4 (NLT) even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Psalm 77:13 (NLT) Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?
Leviticus 11:44 (NLT) For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.
Revelation 15:4 (NLT) Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
1 Thessalonians 4:7 (NLT) For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
Hebrews 7:26 (NLT) For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Acts 3:14-15 (NLT) But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
Psalm 96:9 (NLT) Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!