Be Holy and my other choice is???

“…because priests are holy to their God. ⁸ Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy—I who make you holy.” Leviticus 21:7b-8. NIV

I’ve been reading through Leviticus for the past week and have noticed that God is passionate about His holiness.  Two of Aaron’s son were killed because they offered an “unholy” incense  to the Lord.  God would not even allow Aaron to mourn their deaths because Aaron had already been consecrated to the Lord as Holy.  God spends a lot of time instructing Moses to identify what makes a person clean or unclean whether it is about types of food or social activities. People were to be cut off from the community or killed if they did not follow God’s plan for holiness.

To try in our own efforts to be holy as God is holy is an exercise in futility that is always ends with us missing the mark.  Yet, on the other side of the coin, we are walking a path of making everything common place so that it is more palatable to the world. Jesus said that our righteousness should exceed that of the Pharisees if we are to be citizens of the new kingdom.   Paul reiterates in 2 Corinthians for us to “Come out from among them and be ye separate”.

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus…but there is still conviction that should lead to true repentance.  God does care that our attitudes and actions should be pleasing to him.  But how do we obtain holy living without being consumed with following the rules in our head of what we think that God requires for us to be holy?

Actually, it is much more simple than you would think.  When we confessed our sins to God, we gained the same status of Jesus as Holy.  This lifestyle is maintained, not by trying to keep all the rules of the law, but by following the lead of the Holy Spirit.  Wherever He asks us to go, to speak, or to do will be in the direction of holiness, for this is the very core of His nature.  He always moves in the direction of holiness.  Paul says that if we keep in step with the Holy Spirit we will not carry out the desires of our flesh.  Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us into all truth.  We will never be without excuse, because Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will be with us always.

So to remain clean, set apart, and holy before the Lord is to listen to the Holy Spirit and then do what He suggest.  If you ignore his voice or reject his idea…we move into a place of unholiness or our own understanding.  Jesus lived a perfect life because he always walked in step with the Father’s will through the leading of the Holy Spirit.  It was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan for 40 days.  Yet, Jesus remained faithful.

To be holy as God is holy is to walk a life of dependency on the Holy Spirit.  We trust that He is good and will always lead us into life and truth.  Do you know what his voice sounds like?  Can you discern his whispers?  Are you praying for a recurring and constant infilling of the Holy Spirit?  Do you value His abiding presence more than anything on the earth?

Be Holy by allowing the Holy Spirit’s influence over and in your life, be the aroma that is pleasing to the Lord and the standard among your friends that you are a “called out one.”