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GOD "IS HOLY" - 1 Peter 1:16
“God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness” – 1 Thess. 4:7 “as He which hath called you is holy” – 1 Peter 1:14-17 “called to be saints” – 1 Cor. 1:2, Rom. 1:7 |
“Perfecting Holiness” – 2 Cor. 7:1 -------------------------------- God is holy; and he that dwelleth in holiness dwelleth in God, and God in him. “Whose Name is Holy” – Isa. 57:15 “holy and reverend is His Name” – Ps. 111:9 |
GOD IS HOLY – “Be ye holy FOR I AM HOLY” (1 Peter 1:16). The question of perfecting holiness brings to the forefront the question: are you “as your Father is”, Who is holy, so that you will be found truthful of your claim that you are a child of God? If we are God’s “children” (1 Pet. 1:14), let us therefore recognize our calling which He has called us into by the gospel, namely, to be HOLY, and let us further recognize that, just because we are the children of God by nature and we call God Father by confession, this does not exclude the dangers of Judgment if we are not perfect in holiness, as 2 Corinthians 7:1 warns, or, holy as He is holy, as 1 Pet. 1:16 commands. Do you understand this Judgment BAR!? Peter WARNS all those persons who call God “Father” – to FEAR – as the faith-filled and reasonable response to the fact that God calls you to be holy! “If ye call on the Father, Who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning hear in fear” (1 Pet. 1:17). Read the passage in its entirety before we continue:
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“As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, Who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear…” (1 Pet. 1:14-17)
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Peter is expounding all the principles of “perfect” holiness, but he does it without the word “perfect” being used. As the apostle John brought the people to consider “perfect love” in the light of Judgment Day, so now Peter is preaching on perfect holiness on God’s Judgment Day. The doctrine of perfection was understood by all the apostles and pastors of the 1st century Church. The apostle Paul preaches the same principles of perfect holiness in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, and I hope that I would not have to exposit the entire passage in detail, because I have already addressed it several times. But look with me at a few points of emphasis. What is the burden of Paul? It is “perfecting holiness” (2 Cor. 7:1), and why? It is because God’s presence is in their midst (2 Cor. 6:16), and He will not continue in their midst, nor will He call them His sons or daughters, if they are not maintaining a holiness, otherwise known as a separateness, which is accomplished by coming out from among unholy things. The Judgment of the saints on Judgment Day is of primary view in the passage, how that God will judge the legitimacy of their claim to be God’s “sons and daughters”. Direct instructions are given so that Christians will, as Peter preaches it, be holy as God is holy, only now it is Paul speaking to the Corinthians. Hanging in jeopardy is the blessed promise: “I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:18). If you want to lay hold of these blessed promises for your Judgment Day experience, Paul says that you better perfect holiness in the fear of God, which is, a separation from “unbelievers”, “unrighteousness”, “darkness”, “Belial”, “infidels”, and “idols”, in context of what the passage is meaning, and rather abide in God’s presence which is “righteousness”, “light”, “Christ”, and “the Temple of the Living God” (2 Cor. 6:14-16).
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“Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). |
God is “holy, holy, holy” (Rev. 4:8), His Spirit is a “Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8), and those that walk in Him are “holy” (Heb. 12:48), therefore they are not strangers but citizens and friends of “the holy city” (Rev. 21:2). No one who is not holy “may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14), “and there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth” (Rev. 21:27). God’s “name is Holy” (Isa. 57:15), and if you seek to lay claim that you are of His name, you must, THEREFORE, be holy.