Family Resemblance in Holiness

“and you shall be holy to Me, for I, the LORD, am holy and have set you apart from the nations to become Mine.” Leviticus 20:26

Family Resemblance in Holiness

Holy – I am always amazed to discover how little attention contemporary Christians give to the Old Testament law.  I suspect this is the result of two important factors:  several decades of inadequate training in the church and, perhaps more importantly, a long history of misunderstanding about the “new” covenant.  Many Christians seem to act as though the “real” Bible begins with Matthew and that all of that other stuff is just Jewish history.  As a group, we have placed so much attention on the events since the incarnation that we have lost our perspective about the whole plan of God.  The best corrective is this simple statement:  Jesus was an Old Testament man.  He was seeped in what we call the Old Testament.  He taught from it, elaborated it, prayed from it, memorized it and based his ministry on it.  For him, it was God’s holy word.  It still is.  The more I understand the thought of the Old Testament, the better I understand the life and thought of Jesus.  Without the previous 6000 years of God’s patient revelation, I wonder if Jesus would make any sense at all.

Nothing is more important in this progressive revelation than this thought in Leviticus.  Holiness is the dominant theme of the entire Old Testament.  It is the hallmark of God’s character.  It is the basis of His interaction with us, His governance, His law, His mercy and His compassion.  Unless I know what holiness means, God’s message to me slips into nothing more than an expanded version of the Boy Scout oath.  Morality is important, but holiness goes far beyond being a better person.  To make the “better person” mistake is to reduce the character of God to divine etiquette.

So, what does God mean when He says, “you shall be holy”?  Since we are expected to be holy (even Jesus says this), it’s a question worth considering.  Do you know what God means when He uses the Hebrew verb qadash?  If you don’t, how can you ever be like Him?  Is your concept of holiness limited to morality?  Is it about following the rules?  Is it about being a nice person?  Popular religion would suggest that holiness is about how I behave.  If that’s all it is, then what’s the difference between the highest ethical living of a non-believer and the moral behavior of a believer?  Do they both equally reflect God’s character?

Not all answers can be found in two minutes.  But deep questions can be asked in those moments.

Have you ever asked yourself, “Do I really know what God expects when He says, “Be holy for I am holy””?