You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

Leviticus 19 begins with the injunction to be holy because God is holy. What is holiness then? The rest of the chapter describes the observeable results of holiness: moral, upright behaviour before God and among our peers and those less fortunate. But is this all that being holy as God is holy is about? The Pharisees saw external conformity as sufficient and yet Jesus condemned them as hypocrites. Being holy, as God is holy certainly should result in changed behaviour, but it must also go much deeper than that. Jesus was right, external conformity without internal transformation is hypocrisy and of no value. Internal transformation by the indwelling Holy Spirit will transform us from the inside out, resulting in the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 is a singular noun; in other words all the following attributes are part of one fruit. True holiness springs from this inward indwelling that imbues us with the heart of God in our attitudes and desires.

True holiness, then, must start with our seeking out the One who is holy and not just by adding external conformity to a long list of rules.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.