Holiness

Living a holy life should be the goal of every Christian. It means that we are separated from the world, as we emulate Jesus Christ daily in our walk with God. This does not mean that we are perfect human beings. It only means that we must do our best to please God.

In Hebrews 12:14, the Bible says:

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”NIV.

So, what is “Holiness”?

Why must we live a Holy life?

What are the consequences of not living a Holy life?

How do we live a Holy life?

What are the rewards for living a Holy life?

Well, let’s first define what “Holiness” is.

One dictionary puts it like this:

“The quality or state of being holy.”

Now, that isn’t very helpful!

Let’s try to explain what holiness is. It’s to flee from sin. It is to live a life that pleases God. We cannot live life the way we think it should be lived. We need to have certain standard by which we measure our actions daily. That standard is the standard of God.

So, how will we know what God wants from us?

By reading our Bible daily. The Bible is our manual for daily living and God has given us his Word, so that we can read it and abide by its teachings.Also, sermons and teachings from annoited men and women of God will give us guidance on what to do and how to live a holy life.

Yes, God’s standards are very high. However, he has set those standards and if we say that we are his children, we need to live and abide by those standards.

Also, we need the grace of God daily to enable us to please God, after all, pleasing God should be our motive for our daily living.

So, why should we try to live a Holy life?

Well, the Lord commands it!

Remember, Hebrews 12:14 which says:

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”NIV.

So, holiness is a command from God, with a caveat attached to it. Anyone who is not holy will not see God. So, we must strive to lead a holy life if we must see God.

Now, it is not just seeing God in the hereafter, but to experience him now even in the real world. God is a Holy and righteous God. He lives in holiness, and so,anyone who wants to experience him or have a divine encounter with him must be holy.

God himself confirmed his holiness in 1 Peter 1: 15-16 : when he said:

“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”KJV.

Holiness should be an attribute that all Christians must aspire to and attain. If we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, then we have to be like Jesus Christ. He is our role model, and we need to live like him. It is true that sin is in the human nature and Jesus Christ was without sin. But living for Christ and like Christ is not negotiable in our Christian race.

Yes, holy living is hard work!

As we said before, holiness is very hard to define. So, let’s use some “reverse engineering” and see if we can make ourselves a little bit clearer.

Let’s define what holiness is not. In other words, what are the antonyms of holiness?

These are “ godlessnesses, sinfulness, impiety, ungodliness, irreverence, vileness, sinfulness, wickedness, hypocrisy,depravity, heinousness, monstrosity, sacrilegiousness” etc.

Now that we know what the opposite of holiness is, let us look at some of the qualities a holy person should possess to be holy.

Some of these qualities are:

“Piety, godliness, sanctity, blessedness, morality, devoutness, humility, righteousness, faith, grace, venerableness, reverence, sacredness etc”.

As you can see, the difference is clear!

Holiness trumps sinfulness any day!

So, what is the secret to holiness?

Humility.

We all know what it is to be humble before God. We also know that God hates the proud but loves the humble person. Let’s look at a few scripture verses that confirm this.

In James 4:6:

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”NIV

In Matthew 23:12:

“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”NIV

In Proverbs 29:23:

“Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.”NLT

In Proverbs 3:34:

“He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed”NIV

A humble person who is not puffed up, will likely be a person who seeks holiness at all times. On the other hand, a proud person is likely to be so full of himself, that holiness is the last thing on his mind. He is too aware of how important, rich, powerful or influential he is to be humble or to seek holiness.