Leviticus 11:44-45 “For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”1 Peter 1:13-16 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 Corinthians 3:16-17 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Numbers 15:39-41 Remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.”
God is holy. God is separate from and other than all of His creation. He is righteous, He Is pure, He is holiness dwelling in unapproachable light. Habakkuk 1:12 & 13 asks: “Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.” If this is our God, how should we as His people live and reflect His glory in a dark world that is passing away into judgment? How are we to live as holy ground, holy people, as a kingdom of priests, as image-bearers of the Almighty? We represent God by walking in obedience to His commands. The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love people. We are to love the sinner, not the sin. Repentance and Salvation is what Jesus’ atonement and redemption is about. His command is then to love the people of the world as He loved us and saved us. As we seek God through the study of His Word, we fall more and more in love with and in awe of the Lord. It is a great privilege to be a child of God. But with privilege comes responsibility. It is our responsibility to conduct ourselves in a manner that reflects God’s holiness, to live lives that are easily distinguishable from those of the secular world around us. Is our live so separate from and different than the world around us that it is like the difference between light & darkness, because we are holy ground?
Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.
In Christ, Brian
The discussion came up in our small group Bible study last evening about how holiness means being set apart unto God; by God for God’s purposes by God’s standards & perfect will. But in that separation from sinful sensual lusts of the flesh contrary to God’s will & way found in His holy word and/or the self-centered pursuits of a God-ignorant or God-rejecting worldview God, how we, as a child of God saved by grace, are then to be actively engaged with this lost and dying world, as holy ground by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, equipped and filled by the regeneration of our heart, soul and spirit and the renewing of our consecrated mind to the character of our heavenly Father in Christ, to bring the light of truth into the darkness of sin & unbelief to reach the spiritually blind and perishing by planting seed of the gospel in their hearts by our compassionate and godly words and actions, to bring them to the foot of the cross and a “saving” knowledge of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. A holy people in covenant with the holy God must never forget who they are and the separateness, not isolation, they are called to as Ambassadors for Christ. Set apart from sin, not the world, as delegates from the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Numbers 15:39-41 Remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.”
God is holy. God is separate from and other than all of His creation. He is righteous, He Is pure, He is holiness dwelling in unapproachable light. Habakkuk 1:12 & 13 asks: “Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.” If this is our God, how should we as His people live and reflect His glory in a dark world that is passing away into judgment? How are we to live as holy ground, holy people, as a kingdom of priests, as image-bearers of the Almighty? We represent God by walking in obedience to His commands. The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love people. We are to love the sinner, not the sin. Repentance and Salvation is what Jesus’ atonement and redemption is about. His command is then to love the people of the world as He loved us and saved us. As we seek God through the study of His Word, we fall more and more in love with and in awe of the Lord. It is a great privilege to be a child of God. But with privilege comes responsibility. It is our responsibility to conduct ourselves in a manner that reflects God’s holiness, to live lives that are easily distinguishable from those of the secular world around us. Is our live so separate from and different than the world around us that it is like the difference between light & darkness, because we are holy ground?
Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.
In Christ, Brian
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