When you’re young, certain ideas seem big, bad or burdensome.

One of them is “responsibility.” It probably made you think about cutting grandma’s lawn or doing chores when you didn’t want to.

Over time, however, you realize there’s more to it than that. It’s “response-ability.” God has given us certain abilities, and when we respond to the various needs around us consistently it is a good way to honour God and the other people around us. 

Even as adults, the word “holiness” can be like this too. When we first learn about it, we think it has to do with unattainable moral perfection or even a lack of joy. 

Bobby Moore was an English soccer player. After they won the championship, he was supposed to shake the Queen’s hand. He was nervous because he was sweaty and dirty and she had white gloves. There’s a video of him nervously wiping his hands over and over. When it comes to thinking about holiness, this is often how we feel! 

It helps, therefore, to have a clearer understanding of holiness. Here’s a definition. It is to be set apart (i.e. distinct) for God’s special purposes. Are we imperfect? Definitely. And yet, our discipleship makes us different.

Granted, in Christ we are already made holy before God (see Hebrews 10:10). At the same time, we are in the process of growing in holiness. Yes, we are also growing in love, in truth, in mercy, and in faithfulness, but we tend to skip over the idea of holiness, perhaps because we don’t want to sound “holier than thou.” 

But like these other concepts, holiness is a repeated biblical theme. It is an ongoing process of becoming more and more like Christ. It is about increasingly reflecting the character of God. In Leviticus 11:44 he says: “be holy, for I am holy.”

Today, resist blending in. In Christ, you are set apart for God’s special purposes in the world. 

J.I. Packer writes: “We cannot follow Christ in holiness unless we are willing to stand out from the crowd and swim against the stream.”*

Notes:

-*J.I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness: Know the Fullness of Life with God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 2nd ed., 278.
-Bible quotes are from the ESV.