Understanding Holiness - The One Year Devotions for Men on the Go

After all, I, the Lord, am your God. You must be holy because I am holy. Leviticus 11:44

Holiness is hard for us to understand. That’s because we too often view holiness through the lens of our standards and our society’s standards.

In his book The God Who Hears, Bing Hunter describes God’s moral purity as “his inherent personal righteousness and holiness . . . symbolized in Scripture as light: blinding, unending, undiminishing, dazzling whiteness.”^a He also applies the issue to our daily lives:

Another reason why holiness is so hard to understand is that Christians are like fish, living in a fluid medium (society) which has become so morally murky that “light” seems abnormal. We were born in dirty water and have gotten used to it. Mud and murk are normal; clean and light are threatening. We can see rotten things on the bottom, but assume we cannot get stuck in the muck if we keep moving. And besides, we generally swim (in circles) higher up in the pond. We have learned to live comfortably with unholiness and see lots of others wearing Ichthus pins who do too. . . . It is little wonder sin grieves the Holy Spirit who lives in us (Ephesians 5:30). Yet the greater and more astounding wonder is that sin grieves us so little.^b

What is making your water murky? What is making it hard for you to understand God’s holiness? What sin used to upset you before but now makes you yawn? Take a good look at God, and then look at him again. That should help you see things more clearly.

Give me sense, Lord, to see through the murkiness of my own life and the society I live in so I can understand your holiness.