“Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
Leviticus 19:2
In today’s American culture, as well as many other nations around the world, people who do not fit the cultural norms are often mistreated, ridiculed, and persecuted. The cultural norm today in America seems to be tolerance of any individuality, whether it is sexual preference, clothing (or lack thereof), artistic creativity, drug use, foul language, or a whole slew of other behaviors that used to be considered in bad taste or out of bounds. There is even a cable television channel dedicated to to it – USA – that declares all characters (being unique or different) as good. However, somewhere along the way America has lost its boundary lines of what it considers to be good behavior and what is not. And in many cases the more outrageous the behavior the more it is publicized and glorified by the media, held up as acceptable, and in some cases, promoted as desirable. I guess we should not be surprised, because we live in a fallen world that is corrupt. But America did not used to be like this when I was growing up.
Regardless of what the culture believes or does, as Christians, however, we are called to live holy and God pleasing lives. God says in Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Jesus says in Matthew 5:48 that we should “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 & 7 that “It is God’s will that you should be holy” and “God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” Peter adds in 2 Peter 3:11 that “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what type of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and Godly lives.” So it is clear from Scripture that we are to live lives of holiness, dedicated to following Christ and obeying God’s Word. This is the standard for all Christians!
What is holiness? It is the avoidance of sin and the sinful nature. The sinful nature is described in Galatians 5:19-21, It says “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like.” That’s quite a list! Notice how it says that these are obvious. I wonder how many Americans would agree? In so many ways our American culture celebrates many of these acts of the sinful nature. It is even sadder to me that so many people who claim to be Christian in America also revel in these sins, participate in them, and sometimes even advocate them.
That is not what God had in mind for His people and the followers of His Son Jesus! He sent His Son to pay the penalty for those sins of the human nature, to put to death once and for all the things that will destroy us, and to show us through His Son what a perfect, holy life looks like. Yes, we fail miserably to be holy. But that does not mean that we stop trying or try to redefine sin so we lower God’s standard. God has set His standard for all time in Jesus!! That will never change. If we truly want to follow Jesus then we must always endeavor to be holy and to seek His holiness in our lives. But we are also assured of His forgiveness and mercy when we do fail and repent of our sin.
As Christians in America, we must distinguish ourselves from our culture by living God-pleasing, holy lives. We must be careful not to get “entangled” in the sin that draws us away from God, but to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2). We must stand firm in our faith, trust in the Lord, and resist the temptation to be like the culture if it does not align with God’s Word. We should expect to face rejection, persecution and ridicule from our culture, just like Jesus did from His. The culture will not tolerate us any more than the Jesus’ culture tolerated Him. That’s what it means to be holy and a follower of Christ!
Finally, one more encouragement and word of truth from Scripture: “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)
Holiness, anyone?
Excellent!