Achieving Holiness

As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. 1 Peter 1:15

As a teenager, I worked in a department store in Belfast every Thursday night and Saturday. I have some great memories about the shop and the girls I got to work with, but there is one particular thing that I found amusing/bizarre. As we came toward closing time on a Saturday, a couple of the older girls (early twenties) would start to get ready for a night of stiletto dancing with their good friends Bacardi and Coke. But before that could start, they had a very important stop to make – 6pm Mass. Confessions made, they could now party to their hearts content.

There is a standard of behaviour that is expected from a child of God, and that standard is high. We may serve a generously forgiving God who extends mercy and grace to us freely, but this does not mean that we can live as we like. The apostle Peter reminds us that we not only serve a holy God but a just God, so we should conduct ourselves with fear because we have been ransomed with the precious blood of Christ (1:17-19). Forgiveness is never something that we play around with.

For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. Leviticus 11:44

We can never achieve holiness in and of ourselves which is why the Lord Jesus came down from heaven and consecrated himself in holy service to the Father. Having been obedient to the Father, he then prayed that we would be kept in His Name, so that we could live holy lives in this world (John 17). In recognising and understanding all that Jesus has done for us, why would we not want to conduct ourselves in holy obedience?

Leave behind all unholy behaviour and walk in the holiness of God.