The word ‘holy’ stirs up mixed feelings. You see dull know-it-alls, or people who are so good they almost have a halo. The bible says ‘we should be denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age’. Are you a saint if you act like this?
What does it mean when God says; “You must be holy because I am holy”? Should we do our best to be as holy as God? We will never be able to. God is so pure, so perfect, so immaculate, we will never reach His league. We are more like Velcro. We have little hooks and cracks and dents everywhere. I can’t stay clean. Wherever I go, almost always something rubs off on me. I could join a convent to be separate from the evil world, maybe then less junk will stick on me, but it doesn’t really matter if I have only one very tiny spot or a lot of very large ones, I am holy, pure, perfect or I am not, it is on or off. Almost perfect is not perfect, partly pure is not pure, a little bit holy is not holy.
We can’t live up to the commandment to be holy in the sense of being pure or perfect, but we can try to be holy in the sense of being dedicated to God. The tools in the temple were consecrated, likewise we can be sanctified, cleansed and dedicated to the use for God, to be available for the work of God.
To be able to do this it is not really relevant who I am, where I live and what my profession is. The question is; am I available at the place where I am? When God wants to show his love through me, am I available? When He wants to show his mercy, his compassion, his patience or his loyalty, do I want to be the vessel?
Being available, that’s all what is asked from us and that is hard enough as it is. Our lives are most of the time already filled with our own agenda’s. It is a challenge to make room in between our own priorities for the priorities of God. To give Him space to work through us. Then something beautiful is going to happen, because being Velcro, there will also rub off something of Gods love, mercy, compassion, patience, loyalty, etc. on us. Our Velcro will be filled with things of God, so there will be less space for junk. This way He will make us more beautiful and more pure. The mess that will still stick on us, He will clean, every time. What we can’t do ourselves, He will do for us.
“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
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