Bible Reading: Leviticus 19 & 20, Matthew 27: 45-66
“And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine” – Leviticus 20:26 (KJV).
God is holy. He stands alone in His class. He is perfect needing no assistance or improvement. He is complete, wanting or lacking nothing. He is whole, nothing to be added and nothing to be subtracted. Not only is God holy, God makes people holy and he demands holiness from people. God does not demand from man what he is not, and he does not demand from man what he cannot provide. He is first holy before he demands holiness. He also provides or enables holiness.
To be holy is to be set apart from. It has a connotation of being separated from certain things in order to be wholly or completely set apart for something. God demands that we be separated from sin, that we be separated from the world, and that we be separated from the flesh and self so we can be set apart for him. He demands that we be separated from idols, from ignoble purposes so we can serve his purpose. Holiness demands cleanliness but it is much more than that; it is to be set apart for God and his purpose. It means to be consecrated unto him. Israel was uniquely separated from the rest of the world and set apart as God’s people. This is a bigger picture of holiness. The whole world rejected God and wandered away from him. God separated Abraham from the rest of the world and set him and his seed apart as special people unto himself. Holiness is first about God. It is a life set apart for God. It is a life set apart for God’s purpose. It is a life separated from other people and reserved only for God. It was not about how clean Abraham was but about his entire life being consecrated, dedicated and reserved solely for God. This is the secret of victory over sin. When one’s life is completely set apart for God, sin, the influence of the world and the power of the sinful fleshly nature is broken. Like the biological seeds of Abraham, we too are separated from the world and set apart for God. He chose us to be only for him so we can be holy unto him. “But ye are chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” – 1 Peter 1:9 (KJV).
We did not choose ourselves, God chose us and set us apart so we should not serve sin, the flesh or serve the world. He chose us to be wholly and completely devoted to him. Holiness is an issue of God’s love and his jealously over his own. Like no man will want to share his wife with other men, God does not want to share his own with anyone or with anything. He desires that his own be completely reserved and set apart for him. Whose are you? Who you serve determines whose you are. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve God and the devil neither can you serve God and the flesh.
PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me to be completely set apart for you and for your purpose.
Rev. Vincent Diolu