What is holiness?

I am aware of some teachers holding out holiness to include every excellent virtue, making holiness equivalent to godliness.  To me, I don’t equate holiness to godliness; the end-goal of our pursuit is godliness; the greatest honour we can receive from the Lord, I reckon, is when we are said to be godly.  To reach that end-goal, we need to perfect the many excellent virtues such as holiness, love, forgiveness, meekness, faithfulness, etc.  In any case, Scripture does point to viewing holiness and godliness as NOT identical – 2 Pet 3:11 – “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives”.  If holiness and godliness are identical, then we would NOT be using “and” would we?

So, I am NOT including other virtues such as love in holiness, although of course, we know that “to NOT love” is wicked in God’s eye, and so, one who does NOT love is NOT holy (wicked) {We ought to know that even “to NOT forgive” is wicked, in the eyes of God}.  But the more fundamental reason why one who does NOT love is said to be NOT holy is because “to love” is commanded by God, and disobeying God is NOT righteous (it is a sin), and so, NOT holy.  

It is best we discuss such other virtues, such as love, separately, although I must make it clear though, that all other virtues, including love, are subjugated to the holiness of God (or we say, it, His holiness, shapes all His other attributes; so, for example, we speak of His holy anger!), as holiness is the most fundamental nature-attribute of God.

Holiness, the most fundamental nature-attribute of God?

I believe it so.  The holiness of God pervades His entire being.

In the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, John, the author, was taken up and brought before God in His throne room in Heaven.  This is what he said he saw, “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle” (Rev 4:6b-7).

What were the creatures doing, day and night, before God? In verse 8, we read, each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

To me, this painted to us, holiness is the most fundamental nature-attribute of God.  Just imagine, day and night, the creatures never stop saying the words, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Isaiah Chapter 6, we read this:

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:1-3)”

Although, in this case, it might not be in Heaven, all the same, when God was on His throne, the creatures were there saying the same thing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord [God] Almighty”.  Holiness is the most fundamental nature-attribute of God.

Fundamentally, what is holiness about?

Isaiah’s cry and what the seraph did, afterward, gave us the clue as to what holiness concerns, when men are referenced.  This is his cry, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5) “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:7)”

When men are referenced, holiness is absence of that which defiles.  And “defile” means, chiefly, this: “To debase the pureness or excellence of another”.  A man is holy or NOT, is NOT measured from within himself, but measured against the purity of another, who is God.  A man is holy only when in him is absence of that which defiles/debases the purity of God.

What is purity of God [hognos – G53]?  It is His holiness.  There is only one who was absolutely holy and has remained holy, God; there is no other.  Rev 15:4 reads: “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.” 1 Sam 2:2 (KJV) - There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.

Isaiah knew he was full of that which would defile God or would debase the purity of God; and he said “Woe to me”, but what is the holiness or purity of God? What we can possibly infer from the Isaiah’s account is this:  Metaphorically speaking, it is that God is clean (He is the Clean), and Isaiah was unclean; and that unclean would debase or offend the Clean.

This, I believe, was the background to Isaiah’s exclamation of “unclean lips”:  In those days, leprosy was NOT uncommon, and men with leprosy were cast off from the clean community, and they were NOT allowed to come into the clean community, for the contagious nature of the illness would debase the clean community.  And so, the clean community and the unclean community (making up of men with leprosy), they were separate.  When an unclean (or leprous) man happened to come near to a clean man or community, he must, with his lips, warn that he was unclean (or leprous) by covering his lips and shouting, “Unclean, unclean”.  Unclean lips symbolises, NOT only the being {person} is being unclean, but also that, what comes forth (with the speech and breath) from the lips could defile.  Isaiah understood without holiness no one could see God (Heb 12:14) and NOT suffer any ill consequence from it; and in humility and contrite of heart, quickly likened himself as one who was leprous coming near to the Clean One.

Of course, the “unclean” and “clean” were metaphorical to sinful {men, sinful} and sinless {God, sinless}, evil and good (absolute) {only God is good – Mark 10:18}, wickedness and goodness absolute, completely virtuous. 

In this connection, it is to be noted that strictly speaking, it is, one or the other; for example, it is unclean or clean, or sinful or sinless; and NOT, “quite clean” and clean, or  “with a little sin” and sinless.  Back to the metaphor of leprosy, then in those times, an unclean (or leprous one), he did NOT get back into the clean community unless he was checked and declared “clean” by the high priest.  So long as he was still with a little leprosy, he did NOT get back in, and it was NOT possible for him to get back in, except having been declared clean once again by the high priest.  It is that distinct, one or the other, unclean or clean, or sinful or sinless, no shades or in-betweens.  So, what were unclean and clean, as used by Isaiah, to be understood as? State of being sinful (or evil), and sinless (or holy).

Another verse of Isaiah confirms my understanding:

Isaiah 64:6 (Amplified Bible): For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction].

And that understanding is that, clean is referring to sinless, and unclean, sinful (And so, too, I believe we can see that leprosy was used in Scripture as a metaphor for sin).  In other words, when we picture God as holy, we are to be getting this picture that God is with a state of without sin – sinless always.  And so, as said by Rev 15:4, God is the only one who is holy (was and is holy), God is sinless always, and so, also without evil always, and without wickedness always.  God is set apart from evil, meaning evil, wickedness or sinfulness cannot be found in God.  In fact, purity or holiness of God, complete absence of evil or wickedness, or being sinless, is opposed to evil, wickedness or sin.  In love-hate terminology, it is God hates evil.

If God does NOT hate evil, then “the fear of the LORD {/God/the Lord}” would NOT be defined the way it was defined in Scripture.   How was the fear of the Lord defined?  The definition was given us in Pro 8:13 and understood and psalmed by David in his Ps 34:11-14.

Pro 8:13 (KJV) - The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Ps 34:11-14 – 11 Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, 13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. 14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

We are exhorted to have the fear of the Lord, and that means to hate evil. It is clear God hates evil, otherwise, His Word would NOT be exhorting us to hate evil, too.

By the way, if you are still thinking that it is inappropriate for us to say that God does hate, Pro 6:16-19 reads:

16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:  17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

All of the above things said to be hated by God can be summed by the same words of they being sins, evil or wickedness.

Apart from Isaiah’s words, as discussed above, that we know that holiness of God is about Him being sinless, without evil, without wickedness always, there is a New Testament text, by the Apostle John, that pointed to the same.

1 John 1:5-10 - 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

The metaphor of God is light, the light there, is NOT love, as is taught by some teachers/preachers; it is referring to holy or holiness.  If you just think back to what have been touched on, in connection with Isaiah’s words above, the same items were present there, in the John’s text – light (equivalent to holy, holiness, clean), darkness (evil, wickedness, sin, unclean-ness), and sin that needed to be forgiven (live coal touching Isaiah’s lips, by the seraph). 

Light there, was NOT love, for if it were so, then darkness in the same verse would be hatred, and 1 John 1:5 would read “…God is love; in Him there is no hatred at all”.  This, we know, as I have pointed out above, it is NOT that there is no hatred at all in God; God hates evil, and some of the specifics have been given us in Pro 6:16-19.  When we replace light with holy (or holiness), and so, darkness, with evil, it would read just right – “… God is holy; in Him there is no evil at all”.

Some other NT scriptures about holiness

1 Pet 1:14-16
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he [the Lord] who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written {Lev 11:44; 19:2}: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

This text said these important things: 1. The Lord (or God) is holy; 2. Evil is antonymic {opposite} to holy; 3. We are to be holy in all we do (in all we do, we are to be without sin); 4. Be holy is imperative because God is holy; and 5. Even as children of God, it is possible for us to go back to our vomit (2 Pet 2:22), and be still be led by evil (desires) common to those who are NOT yet children of God.

2 Cor 6:16-18 – 2 Cor 7:1 (KJV)

16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,  18 And will be  a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

We can see God promised to be our God and Father, and be with us, and we, be His people and children on the conditions (v17) that we stay off being unclean (be separate from the unbelievers or be no longer of the world, and “touch” no unclean thing), and to have ourselves cleansed of contamination (all filthiness) to the body and spirited soul, in our perfecting of holiness in the fear of God (KJV uses "fear of God", instead of {NIV’s} "reverence for God").  We need to stay off being unclean, and we need to have ourselves cleansed of contamination to our body and spirited soul.

The Apostle Paul was urging us to perfect holiness.  So, we need to work on our holiness (as measured against God’s standard of holiness).  When we falter, we need to ask Jesus for forgiveness; and try again and try harder, with the help of, or working with the Holy Spirit. 

The phrase, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” {KJ version} is just right, and it means “perfecting holiness in hating what God hates - evil”.

Heb 12:14, Matt 5:8 & Rev 21:27 (KJV)

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Heb 12:14). Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). And there shall in no wise enter into it {the Heavenly City} any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Rev 21:27, KJV)

Do you want to see God? Do you want to go to Heaven to live with God? In Heaven, would you be seeing God?  So, do we need to be perfecting holiness or NOT?  The answer is clear.

1 John 3:2-3

2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

The Apostle John too, underscored the need to be holy.  Why did he say what he said in verse 3?  Because he said, when the Holy One, our Lord, comes back, we want to see Him; and if you and I want that, that is our hope is that NOT, to see Him, we have to purify ourselves, for the Lord is holy.  It is the same, said a bit differently, by John, of “Without holiness, no one sees God (Heb 12:14)” or “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8).  The style of John’s emphasis is like that -  “must be, no other way, impossible to be NOT so {he could go to the extent of using “one (a believer) CANNOT sin” [1 John 3:9]}”, even when it is his way of expressing there must NOT be incongruency; in this case, if you has this hope, hope of seeing the holy Lord when He comes back, you have to, it will be incongruent for you to be NOT doing it, purifying yourself or perfecting holiness, as Christ Jesus is pure or holy.

Heb 12:10

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

We have seen from the 2 Cor 6:16 – 2 Cor 7:1 text that God promised to be our God and Father.  Fathers discipline their children, and God is no different.  We are being worked on by God, and being refined so that we may share in His holiness.  Why?  It is so that, we, ultimately, are NOT prevented from seeing Him (and living with Him, too) due to our lack of holiness.  God chastises in love, and His love for men is love unto righteousness (`ahab love).  God loves you and wants you to see Him, and live with Him in Heaven, eventually, and so, prescribes that we have to perfect holiness.

I hope the above gives us, a good idea of what holiness is about, and from it, we would come to the position that we cannot do without (holiness), and there are things we have to do, concerning it, and NOT nothing as taught by some, arguing incorrectly that we are already perfect in holiness or everything is God’s part, none ours.

Watch out for 2 more articles following this: one on “Holiness and righteousness” to help people to see the 2 are NOT exactly identical; and another on “What we are to do, concerning holiness?”


Anthony Chia, high.expressions

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: high.expressions@gmail.com Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here. 
   

Be holy because I am holy

Can we ever be holy?
What does it mean, practically?
What must we do?

Way of Holiness
Isaiah 35:8a - And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.
I have expounded this on my blog entry:  Way of Holiness - The Way of the Lord. I encourage you to read this entry to appreciate why holiness is so important.

I will just summarise the key reasons for holiness:
1. God is holy and unholy cannot be with holy
2. When we are holy, God will receive us
3. Without holiness , you will not see God

Can we ever be holy?
1 Peter 1:14-16 - As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he[the Lord] who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

I believe that many things are always, either right or wrong, i.e. one way or the other, no two ways about them. For example, for Christians, you cannot worship another god beside the Lord God Almighty.

On the other hand, there are few things that can be viewed in a spectrum kind of way (although, it may be possible to break down the thing into all its components and look at each and every component individually, to decide whether it is right or wrong). Holiness, for example, is one of them. You can view holiness from a scale of say, 0 to 10; where 10 is the holiness of God, perfect holiness. This being the case, one may be tempted to say that it would be alright to score 2, and be contented with that. But for any endeavour, if 10 is the perfect score, would 2 do, especially, if you are going to be contented with that? Where will it lead you to? Another may ask, then can I ever achieve 10 for holiness? For that matter, is it possible for man to achieve any holiness?

I believe if it is not possible for man to achieve any degree of holiness, God would not ask it. I also do not believe once you accepted Jesus as the Saviour, you straightway become holy to the degree of 10 and remain so, all the time, kind of auto-refreshing by Jesus. I accept the holiness of Jesus is 10, and the suggestion that on imputation of Jesus’ holiness upon a person, the degree of holiness imputed is to the degree of 10; but I do not believe the state remains at 10 without maintenance. I can accept that each time all your sins are forgiven you and you are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, your holiness can reach 10, by virtue of the imputed holiness of Jesus but that holiness can fall. Does that then mean, it is not our business or our fault if we are not having a high score? No, God said “Be holy, because I am holy”. That means we are accountable.

What does it mean, practically?
The next gives us the big picture:
2 Cor 6:16 - 2 Cor 7:1
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Cor 7:1 - Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

From the above text, we can see God promised to be our God and Father, and be with us, and we, be His people and children on the conditions (v17) that we stay off unrighteousness (be separate from the unbelievers or be no longer of the world, and “touch” no unclean thing), and to have ourselves cleansed of contamination to the body and spirited soul, in our perfecting of holiness in the fear of God (KJV uses "fear of God", instead of "reverence for God").  We need to stay off unrighteousness, and we need to have ourselves cleansed of contamination to our body and spirited soul.

The Apostle Paul was urging us to perfect holiness.  So, we must try to remain in the high end of the spectrum with an eye for perfection, i.e.  stay high and aim for 10.  Ask Jesus for forgiveness, each time we faltered, try again and try harder, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  One important difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the former has the Holy Spirit while the latter does not.   I think the more holy you get, the more sensitive to the Holy Spirit you become, and the easier you get a conviction that something is not holy.  But be careful not to hide under the excuse of “I did not feel any conviction” and refuse to repent and leave an unholy situation.  Very often, it is not that you did not feel any conviction but it was that you ignored it when it first came to you.  Believe me, when you did that for another time or two, often you would no longer think the particular situation was wrong; you have numbed your conscience.

Grow, you must
Recently, an itinerant preacher of many years said a very important thing to me, he said that God can even use a person with poor spiritual state to do his work but for continual moves in the Spirit for the Lord, the person must grow. I think he hit the nail right on the head. Jesus came into our lives when we were yet sinners – in poor spiritual state.

Also, from time to time we heard of or even witnessed isolated but unmistakable moves of God through certain individuals (God worked through them) when such persons apparently were not “very righteous”. I think in many cases, such moves remained isolated (i.e. God did not move through the individuals anymore or on a consistent basis) because the individuals did not grow in the areas that God expects.

Holiness is one area, I believe we must grow. That we are not yet perfect, God knows, but Paul is right to say that we are to perfect holiness. I now believe that if we want God to use us consistently in supernatural work (in particular), we have to be perfecting holiness. A person who “does” supernatural work consistently, bears the name of God all over him, do you think an unholy man will be allowed to be the bearer of the name of the holy God?

Also, God does allow us to go through situations which we may not like, to cause us to grow, including in the area of holiness. Hebrews 12:10 - Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

What must we do?
Firstly, we need to understand what falls under the area of holiness. Secondly, we need to know how we could get defiled and guard those gates. So, there will be a 3rd article on this subject of holiness.

For now, let us “chew” on this subject. For a Christian, I am saying there is no-auto refreshing of holiness. If you faltered, repent, get refreshed, try harder to stay holy with the help of the Holy Spirit. God expects us to grow but not necessarily expecting that you have arrived (we all grow at different rates and are at different stages of our growth, God may expect more from certain individuals, but the same is not expected of you, at least not yet). But do not take the grace of God for granted. Do not give up trying either, that is what the Devil wants you to do. You are on the way of Holiness, do not let anyone or anything get you off the highway. If you are not yet a Christian, you need to be one before you can travel on this Way. Talk to a Christian on how to know Jesus.


Not that I have achieved perfection, but that we may all learn and press on (Phil 3:14),
Anthony Chia, high.expressions - perfecting holiness is a high expression to God

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @high.expressions@gmail.com. Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.