“You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16).
Let’s be honest, many liberals forget this part of the Gospel. But so do many conservatives. God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way.
What is Sin?
In order to understand what holiness is, we need to understand what sin is. Sin is selfishness. It is living for yourself and it means putting our wants above God and the needs of others.
What is Holiness?
Holiness means to separate or be set apart. There are two aspects to it. The first is to separate from selfishness, the second is to consecrate our lives to God.
Holiness means to put God first and foremost in all our decisions, and other human beings equally with our own interests. This is spelled out by Jesus in the commandment to love God and love our neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40).
All Loving
So holiness means to be all loving. It is when we’re unloving, and ultimately selfish, that we are far from holiness. To be holy means to take on the nature of God, and “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
It seems that the people who talk the most about holiness, are the most unloving and hateful people. They look at the actions, and not the intention. They like to judge others, but don’t stop to judge themselves.
“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye” (Matt. 7:5).
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