1 Peter 2: 9-10 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Set-apartness. Holiness. What does it all really mean? What does it do to us? How does it take on a meaning to me that is not the pre-meditated, memorized, utterly “correct” definition that involuntarily springs out of my mouth? Yes, I know what it means. But what does it mean to me?

“Holiness and I” is not so much the issue. The issue is me and God. God is “wholly other”, as Karl Barth put it., and my relationship with Him is my relationship with Holiness. God is Holy, and none can be holy except by Him.

“Who God is and what it is to be divine is something that we learn where God has revealed [God] self….We may believe that God can and must be absolute in contrast to all that is relative, exhalted to all that is lowly, active in contrast to all suffering, inviolable in contrast to all temptation, transcendent in contrast to all immanence, and therefore divine in contrast to everything human, in short that [God] can and must be ‘Wholly Other’. But such beliefs are shown to be quite untenable, and corrupt and pagan, by the fact that God does in fact be and do this in Jesus Christ.”

To be holy is to be sacred, set apart. God is holy. God is thrice holy. God is set-apart and His set-apartness, I speak in the natural sense, is unobtainable by mere mortals. No, His set-apartness is infinitely above and beyond us. Then He says, “I will sprinkle you with clean water, and you shall be clean”. Clean. “I will cleanse you”. Cleansed. “I will put a new spirit within you”. Renewed. And they shall be called, “The Set-Apart” people.

If we are indeed His set-apart people, if I am indeed set-apart for Him, then what am I set apart from, where am I set apart to, and what am I set-apart for?

The first mention of holiness (qadosh in Hebrew) is Moses with the burning bush. From then on holiness is a recurring theme throughout the Torah. God’s revelation of His Set-Apartness is something that once it is revealed, cannot be ignored or be escaped from. It is now an inescapable fact. It is a relentless fact. God would never so much as  relent from His holiness, for that would be the same as denying Himself (an eternal impossibility!). Moses was probably the first person to hear the word “qadosh” issue from the mouth of God. From thence on it goes from holiness to holiness. The holiness of God is being revealed to man and defined in terms of man’s understanding more and more through Scripture. From thence on holiness is a recurring theme and issue in the Bible that God’s people have to come face to face with, they have to look the fact in the face and can either come away dead or alive. God’s people indeed have to wrangle, wrestle and settle the issue of God’s holiness within them. To ignore the fact is to simply close one eyes in persistent ignorance to the truth. It’s there, whether you want it to be there or not.

Of course, God was holy, even before He said He was holy. Whether I tell you or not, my name is still Beka. Whether you believe it or not, my name is still Beka.

Beware of thinking God’ holiness is an “Old-Covenant” revelation. “Holy” is mentioned 169 times in the “New Testament”.

God’s holiness is exalted, praised, and feared. God’s holiness, set-apartness is to be reflected into the holiness and set-apartness of His people. What characterizes a set-apart nation and a set-apart people?

1)      Reverence towards YHWH. Fear of Him. Obedience towards Him. Respect of His Holy Name.

2)      Humility, Contrition. Unless we know the depth of our sin and depravity, which in turn comes from the realization of God’s holiness, we are pride and arrogant, each “walking according to his own way”. To be a people of God means to know that we, on our own, can never measure to that which is God. We can never be holy on our own. And we have to know the grave consequences of our sin. Therefore humility, total repentance, and turning away, must be so very intrinsic in the nature and practice of the people of God. We must always come before Him on our face in utmost rejection of all that is flesh.

3)      Abhorrence of evil. Avoidance of evil in any form. Utter purging of all that is not of God (whatever is not of God is not of the world. There is no neutral ground). No pretense or idol-worship in any form. A separation from sin, self, Satan, sickness, and the world. We are to be separated from all wickedness and perversity. “Come out of her, lest you share in her sins!”. Such a removal from and of all that is against YHWH is so clearly exemplified in the moving of the tents of Israel away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The children of Israel were repeated warned and commanded to stay away from the Canaanites. The land was to be utterly purged and cleansed. There is no such thing as “cultural assimilation” into that which is of the Kingdom of Darkness by the Kingdom of Light.

4)      Antithetical Way of Life. God’s ways are not “blindly opposite” or “purposely different” from man’s ways. Rather, all that is man and all that is flesh is in blatant and perverse rebellion against the will of God. We have to live the lifestyle of the Kingdom of God. Note that the Kingdom of Heaven does not consist in merely eating and drinking. God does not want us to be obsessed merely in the “doing” and the “physical”. What matters in the Kingdom of God is the inward state and motive of the heart. Once that is taken care of, everything else falls into place.

a.       The Way of the Kingdom is a Narrow Way, a difficult way. It is not a religion of convenience, but a demanding relationship where all the demands have been met for us through the Messiah. Now we have to live, think, act, eat, the way God does, and the way God commands. We have to consist and exist in the realm of God, in the Kingdom of God. We have to set our minds on things above. We have to place our treasure where is really counts and will remain. We have to be a witness of God’s light, grace, truth, and likeness to the entire world around.

5)      Love. Utter love for God and for other. A consuming, holy, love. An eternal, endless love. Love that requires, love that demands everything from us  - our heart, mind, soul, will, and even our very lives. That is the love that God is. That is the love required to perfectly observe and fulfill all the Torah. That is the love completely absent from a natural human being. I am naturally incapable of loving God in such a way. Love perfects - that is why is it a perfect fulfillment of the Torah. Love is the pinnacle of our maturity in Christ the Messiah. The characteristics of true love include the following.

a.       One must know the love of God

b.      One must love God

c.       One must love His neighbor as God loved him

d.      One must not love his own skin

 These are only a few characteristics of holiness – what others can you think off? Holiness is not just expressed in what I write – Holiness expresses itself in infinite ways. Holiness affects my attitude, my choices of activities, my lifestyle – everything I think, do, act, feel, buy, sell, etc. Holiness is demanding.

There is a time-honored tradition in Judaism that even if you are sure you are ritually clean, you really aren’t.