Several are asking “What is Holiness?”

Holiness can be better understood by first understanding what it is NOT. Holiness is not hardness. Holiness is not a set of man-made rules and regulations. Holiness is not a church denomination.

       Holiness is however unique. Unique in the fact that God himself created and defined it from the beginning. Twice in Leviticus chapter 11 God declared himself to be “Holy” He told Israel I am the Lord your God and you must sanctify yourselves and you “shall”  be holy for or (because) I AM HOLY. God is saying to them here if you want to bear my identity the requirement is holiness. Holiness is the very character and nature of God. Lev 11:45  For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. Egypt is symbolic of sin. The scripture here declares that God removed them out of Egypt to be their God and placed a requirement on them to take upon themselves his very own character of holiness. As hard as is was for God to get Israel out of Egypt, it was even harder to get Egypt out of their hearts. God knew it would be impossible to remove the influence of Egypt from the hearts of Israel while still in Egypt, therefore he leads them into the wilderness “to be their God”  Some call holiness, bondage. You might remember that Egypt was their bondage. God led them into the freedom of the wilderness to teach them his holiness. And his holiness was simply defined like this. “If you’re going to be my people you’re going to have to lose the identity of Egypt”

       In today’s world we have created a God who doesn’t care if we have his nature or characteristics as long as he will let us bear his name. But the bible teaches us that God is jealous over us. Holiness isn’t about legalism it is about identity. It’s about whose you are. If you love God enough you’ll put on his character. It will begin in your heart and it will not stop until it totally clothes you both inwardly and outwardly. Many struggle with the outward appearance of holiness and feel that it is not necessary to appear a certain way before this world. Consider this, The world who is in need of God as their savior cannot see inside your heart to know if you are a Christian or not, but they will know something is different about you if you appear different than what they normally see. After all that’s what holiness is “different” God declared it to be different from the rest of the surrounding world, even the religious world.

       Again, Holiness is about the identity of God and his people. Hebrews 12:14 says that without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. Some use this verse to promote a “Holiness or Hell” message. I prefer to look at it this way. Without a holiness people with a holiness character and lifestyle men and women who are lost don’t get the opportunity to “see the Lord” The lost need to see the Lord in us NOW before they see him in judgment when it is too late. Plain clothes policemen are sent out to fight crime under the pretences of regular people. In other words though they are legitimate policemen you never know they are there, thus deceiving you. God does nothing in a deceiving manner. God has a uniformed army and it is a holiness people, you’ll know they are there when you see them. Why would you want to proclaim you belong to God and not wear the uniform of his character?  Many “claiming” Christians walk in front of you everyday but you never even knew they were there, did you?  Let us put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand against the wiles of the Devil.

Pastor Gary E Phillips

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