Holy Living

God is holy, and what is true of God must be true of his people. We should try to be like God in every way. Since God is holy, He expects us to live holy lives. In 1 Peter 1:16, it says, "be holy because I am holy."

Holiness means being separated from the ungodly ways of the world and set apart for God. It means being like Him and dedicated to Him while living to please Him. There are benefits for living a holy life. Psalm 92:12–14 says the righteous will flourish in the court of God and yield fruit in their old age.

Holiness isn't optional for believers. Hebrews 12:14 teaches that "without holiness no one will see the Lord."

We achieve holiness by faith and by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is both a work of God and a work of believers. As Christians, we must take an active role in keeping our lives pure before God. Together with the Holy Spirit, we must work to get rid of all sin in our lives and purify ourselves "from everything that contaminates the body and spirit."

True holiness requires that we have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, devote ourselves to prayer and reading God's word, obeying God and putting sin to death in our lives.

This doesn't mean we will always be perfect, but we should try to move closer and closer to it. Jesus is able to help us. By the grace of God, we have died with Jesus and have been set free from the power of sin. Therefore, we need not and ought not to continue to sin.

In the Bible, holiness is not described as a gradual process of forsaking sin little by little. Instead, it is seen as clear act where by grace we are set free from the bondage of Satan and we make a clean break from sin in order to live for God. However, it's also a lifelong process where we must decide daily to live a holy lifestyle. We are progressively transformed into Christ's likeness.

 

Holiness should be the goal and purpose of every believer, so let us strive to be holy as He is holy.