Holiness is dangerous.
It threatens complacency. It is the death warrant of my sinful lifestyle. It means the end of myself. Holiness destroys the comfortable lies I've settled in.
Holiness is dangerous.
"We have lost our sense of awe for the holiness of God."
The Bible is full of stories of people who took holiness seriously and people who did not. God said don't do something, they didn't do it or there would be consequences (Don't touch the ark of the covenant or you'll die). God said do something. They did it and were blessed (Consecrate yourself and live according to what God says, and you'll be blessed and have peace). Or they did the complete opposite and suffered the consequences.
Holiness. Set apart. Consecrated. Purified. In the Old Testament, God chose the Israelites to be His people and to bear His name. The children of Israel were to be different from all the other nations who had pagan gods and demonic rituals and sinful lifestyles. The Israelites were called by the name of the Lord and were to follow the patterns of living that He set out. They were to be different from all the other nations, so that the world would know who the true God was. They were to be holy. Set apart unto the ways of God. Consecrated from the filth of the flesh and purified for worship of the one, true God. The God who defines holiness. He is holy.
It's interesting and incredibly sad to see what happened in the Old Testament when Israel compromised. When they decided they wanted to be like everybody else. When they decided to embrace the religious practices of the nations around them. When tolerance set in and it was decided that God's way wasn't the only way to do things.
Israel fell.
I'm not slamming Israel. Nor am I trying to make a point about America. This post has nothing to do with either. This is an illustration.
This is about you and me.
The nations of the world rise and fall. But we're not of this world, are we? We belong to a different nation. The spiritual Israel, if you will. The kingdom called by the name of the Lord and called to be holy as He is holy. Called to follow the patterns of living that He has set out. Called to be different from all other nations, so the world may know who the One True God is.
Called to be holy. Set apart from the ways of the world. Consecrated from sin and purified for a life of worship. Worship of the God who defines holiness. Who is holy.
And holiness is dangerous. The lifestyle God demands is dangerous. It is the death warrant of a sinful lifestyle. It is the threat to complacency. It means the end of myself. Holiness aims to destroy the comfortable lies I've settled myself into. It means I'm going to look different from the rest of the world.
It means no compromise. God's way is it or die.
Which the world finds a very threatening thought.
But no one ever said holiness and living for God was safe.
So live it anyways.
