What Does It Mean to Be Holy?
"God’s first instruction for holiness is to be set apart."
My previous understanding was a vague notion of sinlessness, perfection, and sainthood, among other qualities. After all, asking “What is holiness?” is akin to asking “What is the very nature of God?” We cannot fully comprehend God. Yet the impossibility does not relieve us of the responsibility of trying, which would be disingenuous. Fortunately, the Bible gives at least two starting points for defining personal holiness, neither of which is sinlessness or earthly perfection. The Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine (HOD) instructs, “Holiness is not sinlessness” and “We must not claim sinless perfection in this life.”
God’s first instruction for holiness is to be set apart. “You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own” (Leviticus 20:26). We cannot make ourselves holy, the Holy Spirit helps us to leave behind the values and desires of this world so we can become different. In a similar but contrasting passage God instructs, “So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God…I am the Lord who makes you holy” (Leviticus 20:7–8). God initiates the process, and we participate. How do we set ourselves apart? Paul gives practical instruction: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2). The NIV reads, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
We place ourselves where the Holy Spirit can make us Christlike. Through scripture, prayer, corporate worship, and the practice of other spiritual disciplines such as fasting, silence, and solitude, the Holy Spirit transforms us. “And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are “growing in every way more and more like Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). The HOD simply states, “Holiness is Christlikeness.”
My understanding of personal holiness was wrong. It is not sinless perfection here on earth. Rather, the Bible teaches that we engage in the process of becoming holy when we allow God to set us apart from the world, and then allow the Holy Spirit to shape us in Christlikeness through His power. Again, these are only entry points for us to understand holiness, while acknowledging so much more.
This is an excerpt from “Imperfect Holiness: What It Means to Grow in Christlikeness” featured in the October 2024 issue of The War Cry.
