“We don’t smoke, and we don’t chew, and we don’t run with boys who do.” If people think of holiness, they may think of something like that old caricature of holiness.
But people don’t usually think about holiness. Holiness is one of those concepts the Bible uses that we don’t run into very often in our daily lives. It’s a concept that is at the periphery of our civilization.
For the writers of the Bible, however, it was very important. When they pictured the throne room of God, they described the angels around God’s throne saying, “Holy, holy, holy!”
God is absolutely holy. This means He is absolutely perfect and pure, set apart from everything else. Now note: He not only has this perfection, He is devoted to it and delights in it. This may seem strange until we remember that God is Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That means the Father is devoted to the glory of the Son and the Holy Spirit as each member of the Trinity is to the other.
This gives us some idea of what it means when God says, “Be holy as I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2).
In the Bible, God is not the only one who is holy. Places are holy like the temple. Things are holy like the ark. People are holy like the priests.
This means that they are set apart from service to other things. In this sense, the caricature of holiness (“We don’t smoke, and we don’t chew . . .”) has something right in it. We separate ourselves from evil things and even from the misuse of good things.
Take the Sabbath, for example. The Sabbath involves setting aside things we do on the other six days. So, many people think of it merely in terms of not working.
But being set apart is about being set apart for something. It is about being set apart unto the Lord Himself. It means seeing His glory and delighting and finding joy in it. That is holiness.
There is an instructive scene on this point in the book of Nehemiah. When the Israelites returned to the land, they celebrated the Feast of Booths. During this Feast, the priests would read the law of God. When the people realized it, they were filled with a sense of their own disobedience, and this rightly grieved them. However, Nehemiah told them: “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10). Let go of other things and rejoice in the Lord. That is holiness.
In one of my Doctor of Ministry classes, Dr. Steve Childers gave me this definition of holiness that I’ve relished ever since. He said, “Holiness is loving God and others well while maintaining our joy.”
This gives holiness quite a different flavor than what we are used to. The more I think about it, though, the more I believe that Dr. Childers had captured the positive side of holiness. Holiness sets us apart from certain things that will harm us or lead us in a wrong direction to send us in the right direction: finding our delight in service to and love of God. Holiness is about joy. Any talk about holiness that fails to mentions this should be proscribed. We were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is holiness.
Even though we don’t use the word holiness much in our society, we are all looking for something bigger that can give our lives meaning, purpose, and joy. The trouble is we seek it in things that can’t really provide it. Thus, the call to holiness–finding that meaning, purpose, and joy in God alone. This is a purpose and joy that will not disappoint, and this is holiness.