What does holiness look like in everyday life? Is it a monk living in a monastery? Is it taking a vow of poverty? Is it living in a foreign land without the comforts of civilization?
Is it giving up television, movie theaters, dance clubs, and fiction novels? What is the mental picture that comes to mind when you hear the word “holiness”?
I hear myself saying, “Obedience to God in all things.”
How does God want us to be obedient to Him? What set of rules have been given us to follow in the Bible? The Ten Commandments? The Sermon on the Mount? The exhortations of Paul and the Apostles to live a moral life without reproach and free from the appearance of evil?
What does it mean to live a moral life? Honesty? Loyalty? The fruits of the Spirit? Whose set of rules do we live by? The Catholic rules? Orthodox rules? Lutheran rules? Episcopal rules? Baptist Rules? Methodist Rules? Pentecostal rules? Adventist rules? Or are we left to make up our own set of rules?
I hear Jesus saying, ” By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:15
I hear Paul saying, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
I hear John declaring, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4: 7
To be Holy is to be like God. What is God’s chief characteristic?
God is love (1 John 4:8)
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11
Stephen Beagles (2019)