“For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44a).
When holiness is ascribed to the Lord, it does not signify one single, definite attribute. The term actually bears a more general character, having to do with God’s divinity, with who He is and how He relates to His creation. A. W. Tozer wrote, “We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know, infinitely better. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. Only the Spirit of the Holy One can impart to the human spirit the knowledge of the holy.”
When Isaiah received his call to be a prophet of God, he beheld a vision of seraphim before the throne of God, singing, “Holy, holy, holy.” This is the only three-fold repetition of an attribute of God in the entire Scripture. The repetition was given for emphasis, as if the word “holy” were underlined or followed by several exclamation points. God’s holiness is stressed because He alone is truly holy, for there is no one like Him in heaven or on earth. He stands alone, as Tozer said, unique and incomprehensible. Even in our glorified state, we will still stand in awe of God because He is so holy, set apart from His creation because of who He is.
God calls His people to be holy. He does so because He wants His people to be like Him. He wants there to be a difference between us and the world, just as there is a difference between Him and the world. It is because of this holiness, this separateness, that Christians must strive to be different from the world. If we look at ourselves in the mirror and see that there isn’t a great deal of difference between us and our pagan neighbors, we’ve got a problem. If we are called His people, then we must reflect His holiness in our lives. That means that we can’t do the same things the world does. We can’t set our minds on earthly desires, on the things that are corrupt and which pass away. Our thoughts should be more transcendent because our God is high and lofty, because our God is holy. Even though we live in the world, our life should be rooted in God, not the world itself. We must be holy even as He is holy.
If you compared your activities, your thoughts, your priorities, and your values to those of an unbeliever, what would be the main differences? Are there more similarities than you might care to admit? Examine your life today and ask yourself, “How can I be holy even as God is holy?”
