Reflecting Holiness

Reflecting Holiness

Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.

1 Peter 1:15

IN WORD Something within us interprets the call to holiness very rigidly. We almost always associate it with becoming pure and sinless. And our attempts to do so almost always default to a futile method: We assume we must do a better job of following the rules.

But reflecting God’s holiness is not simply a matter of keeping the rules and being better people. Human motivation and self-discipline are horribly inadequate to get us close to God’s holiness. We cannot accomplish the fruit of the Spirit by the works of the flesh.

To reflect God’s holiness, we first need to have a better understanding of what it is. God’s “otherness” requires a challenging response from us: It is a call to be set apart for His specific use. Does that mean purity? Yes, but more. It also means distinctiveness. We can no longer fit into the fallen cultures of this world. There is to be a quality in the believer’s life that distinguishes him or her from the society at large. As Peter goes on to say in his first letter, we are to submit when most people would resist; we’re to endure when most people would cave in; we are to suffer when most people avoid it at all costs. Just as God’s holiness makes Him radically distinct from anything we can conceive of, our reflection of His holiness should make us radically distinct from the world. Christian faith is the ultimate countercultural experience.

IN DEED Have you ever thought of holiness that way? It has never been a matter of hairstyle, fashion, or any other sort of legalism. It will certainly involve the externals in our lives, but it isn’t defined by them. Far from being a matter of strict behavior simply for behavior’s sake, it is more a matter of a radically changed heart. Holiness will always separate a believer from his surroundings—not physically, but in his emotional attachments, his perceptions of reality, and then, as a result, his behavior. As a work of the Holy Spirit, holiness begins within.

A holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns; they only shine.

—D. L. MOODY