God calls us to be holy as He is holy. He is wholly holy. He is holistically holy. There is no part of Him that is not holy. Even His anger is holy because it is usually exhibited when unholiness or sin abound. So, when He calls us to be holy like He is, then the expectation is that our entire being is to be holy - our bodies are to be kept holy, our speech is to be holy, our thoughts are to be holy and our actions are to be holy. Our lives should not be segmented, so that we feel that there are parts that are allowed to be unholy or worldly. We are called to leave our old ways behind and be separated from the world.
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16
And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine. Leviticus 20:26
If we are truly God’s chosen people then we have to stop conforming to our old way of life and be reformed through the Word of God and His Holy Spirit. He has also called us to be separated from the world to be used by Him. We can’t do what everyone else does and expect to be right in God’s eyes. If we should read the Sermon on the Mount we will recognize that Jesus’ instructions go contrary to the world. It is very difficult to think that even the most righteous Christian would not get angry on the Jamaican roads and call someone a fool because there are so many dangerous drivers who do not obey the road rules. However, when Jesus speaks about our thoughts and our words, they are connected with what is really in our hearts. We can act holy, but we really aren’t, and God will know because He sees our hearts.
I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 17:10
All our ways should acknowledge our holy God, who has called us to be salt in a corrupt world and light in the darkness. Jesus tells us to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers and to rejoice in persecution. (See Matthew 5:3-12). These are definitely not principles of the world. Turning the other cheek for another to hurt you even more, and not seeking revenge seems strange. And loving our enemies seems beyond the capabilities of many of us. However, when Jesus says it, we need to do it not by our might or by our power, but by God’s Spirit. We can only do all these when we are in Christ and are being led by the Holy Spirit.
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:16-21
When we are walking in God’s Spirit then we are convicted not to do the things we wish we could do. Even an outburst of anger when a taxi driver is coming directly at us in the wrong direction will make us feel badly later and we may ask God to forgive us because we know He might not have been pleased with our thoughts or the words that came out of our mouths, even though we may have felt justified. We will not submit to the deeds of darkness of the flesh because we know God has called us to live in His light and to praise Him with our lives, which are to be holistically holy.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9
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