Holy You! Series

HOLY YOU!—selections from Leviticus 18-19

(To begin, I went into the audience, to ask, “When you think of a ‘holy person,’ what do you think of?”)

Are you holy? Do you even want to be holy?

Maybe you think of a holy person as someone who never smiles, or has an attitude of being “holier than thou.” I don’t want to be that guy!

Some of us grew up with legalistic standards of holiness: “Good Christians don’t dance, drink, smoke, or chew—or run around with those who do.” In reaction, we might want to be a “cool Christian,” who discusses theology over a beer, and says grace at mealtime, holding a cell phone so that people will think we are talking on the phone, and are not to be interrupted.

Others think of a holy person as one who is super-spiritual. She prays an hour a day, and gets text messages from God. Since none of us can measure up to that, we might assume that we are not the holy type.

YOU ARE HOLY.

What does it mean to be holy? The literal meaning is “set apart,” which in the Bible is, “set apart as special to God.”

In the Old Testament, priests were set apart as holy; only they could go into the tabernacle, the Holy Place. They did have a special role, but the entire nation of Israel was set apart as holy. God said in Leviticus 20:26, “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.”

Were the Israelites holy because they were better than most people? No! In Deuteronomy 7:7-8, Moses said, “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” The people of Israel were holy, special to God, because he loved them and redeemed them from slavery.

Are Christians holy because they are better than most people, or “holier than thou”? No! In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to a church struggling with scandal and sin. He begins his letter with this greeting: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified [set apart as holy] in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…”

You, church, are holy! God has loved you and redeemed you from slavery to sin, and set you apart as his own. Each of us is holy, set apart as a child of God.

You are a child of God. What is the most important lesson to teach your children? The most important thing is that they are special. They are special, not because they got an A on a spelling test, or scored the winning goal, but because God put them in your family, and you are special family, known and loved by God, set apart for service to God. 1 Corinthians 7:14 says, “The unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.”

Do you believe YOU are special to God? Do you believe that God has loved you and redeemed you, and set you apart as holy to him? What does that mean for you? God tells us, very specifically:

BE HOLY.

Leviticus has a recurring theme:

Leviticus 11:44-45 “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.”

Leviticus 19:2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’”

Leviticus 20:7 “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.”

Since the most holy God had loved them and redeemed them, setting them apart as special, it made sense that they would try to live up to who they were as God’s holy people.

For us, the case for being holy is even more compelling. 1 Peter 1:15-19 says, “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." …For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”