Be Holy

In His Name Devotionals
BE HOLY

“Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior” (1 Peter 1:15)

The nature of God is supremely manifested by His holiness. His holiness becomes both the foundation and the guide for our moral lives. His statement in Leviticus is clear and unmistakable: “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (19:2b). This also rings out in the above New Testament verse in 1 Peter. We look to God to God, Whose moral perfection is the basis for our morality. In the Bible we find God, Who tells us how to be right and do right because He is right.

How “ought” we to be? God not only tells us specifically how we “ought” to be; He shows us how we may become what we “ought” to be. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, said, “I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30b). In His conformity to the will of His Father we see the moral excellence of God in Him. Therefore, in our conformity to Christ we cast aside our immorality and let the purity of His life be seen in us. When we, in faith and repentance, “clothe ourselves with Christ” in baptism, we are buried with Him, cleansed, and raised to walk in newness of life (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27).

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We become, by His grace through out faith, what God wants us to be.