Be Holy

I. Introduction

1Pe 1:13-16

We do not wish to discuss at length Redemption, Salvation, Belief, and Faith in this paper, though these, as anchored by Jesus Christ, are the starting point in one’s pursuit of holiness—we have discussed these very important starting points in another paper—the reader may wish to peruse that paper in this connection (“A Letter Of Invitation”).

Most if not all of us realize that there is no way one can attain to perfect (Christ-like) holiness in this life—one carnal flaw (sin) or another will always prevent it (Ecc 7:20); so why this pulpit? Our most Holy Father commands us to be holy (Lev 11:44-45). Why would He command us to be holy when it seems, at least, that His holiness cannot be attained? The answer may be connected to the fact that the believer is in a state of transition; transition from carnal logic and compulsions and passions to spiritual ones. Christ-like holiness is the end goal of that transition (Phl 3:10-16). Naturally, this transition is a process, a process that culminates in quintessential holiness, which is identically the holiness of Jesus Christ, which is the holiness God requires. As one would expect, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, conveys our God’s requirements for holiness to us. Belief in Jesus Christ, and the faith in Him that is born out of that belief, is the starting point for a divine work of spiritual metamorphosis leading to our holiness. His holiness is being instilled in the believer at present; it will be fully realized when He calls the believer home. In this life we have a calling to work with Him in that process; to be holy today. So one can appreciate that God has not issued a futile holiness command seeing He has chosen to take an active part in our holiness pursuits—that is precisely why His holiness is ultimately attainable. It would seem clear that this command for holiness is indirectly a command to follow Jesus Christ, through whom our God’s help in this regard has come. This pulpit will Scripturally illustrate that knowledge of and from Jesus Christ leads to wisdom, and consequentially understanding; that the holiness instilled in this life is born from this God-given understanding (Fig. 1).

II. Knowledge

Knowledge bespeaks of knowing, knowing about something. There are degrees of knowing—one may know a lot about something, or not much at all. If a person plays a particular sport, then they must be made aware of the rules of the game—this awareness suggests knowledge of the particular rules at hand. An electrical engineer must have mathematical knowledge—they must “know” mathematics. They probably would not know all there is to know of mathematics, but to be a competent electrical engineer they must know a fair amount of mathematics—from knowing basic arithmetic, to algebra, to trigonometry and geometry, to linear algebra, to differential and integral calculus, and maybe even some non-traditional mathematics like the algorithmic mathematics of cellular automata that captures complexity so well. For the engineer, their mathematical knowledge has various knowledge bases which come together to give them a large part of their operating knowledge. A mother and a father must know things. They need to know household budgeting, child care, home maintenance, scheduling, and the like. Again, their knowledge is comprised of various knowledge bases. The same holds true for a pastor. A pastor must know God and His Word. They must know their congregation, their duties, their strengths and weaknesses, and so on.

It is intuitively obvious that knowledge is acquired. One accrues knowledge, and this accrual is served by the degree of interest one has in the object of knowing at hand. If one’s interest level is low, chances are pretty good that one’s acquisition of pertinent knowledge will be commensurately low; if it is high, acquisition of knowledge will probably be high. All of this presupposes some zero-level of knowledge—a starting point at which the slate is blank so to speak (ignorance). Now one can hustle up this knowledge by actively pursuing it—here one’s interest level becomes a factor—or one may be the beneficiary of knowledge. Thus knowledge can be sought after through personal effort, and/or knowledge can be received without, or very little, personal effort. For example, the engineer above pursues their mathematical knowledge by expending energy toward that end (reading, studying/drilling, memorizing). Suppose that in their effort, in their expenditure of energy to attain this knowledge, they chose to read some book on the subject. What we see is that they attain pertinent knowledge as the beneficiary of the labors and insights of the author—the point is that the act of reading the book to attain knowledge reflects both personal effort to acquire knowledge as also a fair degree of non-effort due to the knowledge related by the author (the author “gives” this knowledge to the reader).

Knowledge in and of itself is just data, or facts; knowledge is passive, like data stored in a computer’s memory banks. The brain absorbs knowledge and stores it (knowledge is of course processed—we shall address that).

We see further that knowledge is fundamental. That is, it comprises the lowest level building blocks upon which realized spiritual and intellectual pursuits rest.

These are intuitive observations that are nevertheless supported empirically; they are largely consistent with the secular notion of knowledge (“Knowledge”).

It is our premise that Jesus Christ is the great spiritual as also secular knowledge benefactor; it is He who holds the latticework of knowledge that guides the worthy secular and spiritual pursuits on the human plane; it is He who gives this knowledge. And the greatest of these is the pursuit of holiness. This is the greatest pursuit because it is a spiritual pursuit—holiness is the excellent, is the best and supreme manifestation of one’s spirit, and, importantly, it is always in spirit that one approaches Jehovah God (Jhn 4:23-24)—and that is what gives this pursuit preeminence, seeing that He requires holiness (Lev 11:44-45). Clearly sin stands in the way of holiness, for sin, as standing outside the will of Jehovah God, whose will is manifestly holy, is by default unholiness. Thus it is precisely sin that motivates God’s holiness process in us, for humankind is sinful (Rom 3:23), and therefore quite unholy. So one can appreciate that without His holiness process at work in us, He could not fellowship with us, because deity is by definition consistent—quintessential holiness (Jehovah) and unholiness (humankind) are together inconsistent. But such loss of fellowship would frustrate His long-term plans for Himself and us, and so He requires and at the same time drives our holiness so that He can embrace intimately those whom He loves so very much. If this holds, what one learns is that once the holiness process is initiated in a believer, it is “as good as done” in the eyes of Jehovah God, for it is evident that He fellowships with believers presently, even though the holiness process in us has not yet been completed. As we shall see, it is precisely the consummate holiness of Jesus Christ imparted to the believer that makes the process “complete even before it is complete” so to speak—and it is not a big mental step from that to realize that the holiness so given is a tremendous gift, seeing that one did no “work” whatsoever to attain to it, and that one is fully unworthy of it; one “simply” believed in Him and so received the necessary holiness to fellowship with Him, and this particularly is why this gift is so tremendous, seeing who He is; seeing who we are in fellowship with.

In this holiness process at work in the believer, knowledge of and from Jesus Christ is the driving force that fills up the believer’s holiness knowledge base, for He”knows” precisely what holiness is. He can precisely express it, and ably and precisely impart it. Of course it is His intimate relationship with the Father that informs His own knowledge,¹ for Scripture tells us that upon Jesus rests the Spirit of Jehovah God (Isa 11:1-2—and Jehovah God, as God, is by definition omniscient [=perfect knowledge]—this is axiomatic). Moreover, Scripture tells us that He shares (with us) all things He heard from God the Father (Jhn 15:15); that in Him are hidden all the treasures of knowledge (Col 2:2-3). And so as discussed above, one prayerfully sets out to acquire this knowledge from Him; one sets their heart to do so; one puts forth the effort to acquire this knowledge. Again as said above, one’s degree of interest (motivation) here will certainly drive the results. Furthermore, as said above, this acquisition of knowledge from Him will have a dual character—one puts in the “sweat equity” on the one hand, but at the same time one receives, quite freely, through the Word and grace of His Spirit, this sought after knowledge. Table 1 pulls together some of His knowledge in this regard.

III. Wisdom

Pro 8:12 ; Ecc 7:16-19, 23-25 ; 1Cr 2:6-16; Jas 3:17

Wisdom leans on knowledge to do its job; wisdom processes knowledge. If the knowledge slate that wisdom draws on is blank (and blank does not necessarily mean only empty here—the wrong knowledge is as bad or worse than no knowledge), wisdom is blank, is actually foolishness (foolishness and sin are one and the same). If wisdom is to have a part in guiding the holiness process in us, it has to have knowledge to process, and we have pointed out that this knowledge must come from Jesus Christ. Job once asked: ‘whence cometh wisdom, where is the place of understanding’ (Job 28:20)? Job was looking for knowledge—in his spirit he was seeking Jesus Christ and His knowledge; ultimately, Job was seeking holiness, the holiness of Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Job, let us ask a slightly different question: What is wisdom? Wisdom is different than knowledge. Knowledge is fundamental; it is clearly essential here, but it is fundamental—primitive if you will, and, as said, it is passive. Wisdom is more profound; wisdom is not passive, wisdom is active, dynamic. Wisdom has rightly assessed knowledge and found guidance therefrom. Wisdom is thus poised to make further right assessments through this guidance (this is why at the heart of the matter Job was looking for knowledge—Christ’s knowledge, which was not entirely privy to him, hence his question concerning wisdom). The right course is always the wise course, whether that course is secular or spiritual—wisdom guides both aright. But there is a fundamental difference; that is, secular wisdom and spiritual wisdom are alike in this way, but are profoundly different at their root. And the difference lies in their respective valuations. Secular wisdom, also built on a knowledge base, values this life and all its material manifestations and motivations. Secular wisdom is driven by fear of loss of the status quo, for which physical death stands as an emblem. Spiritual wisdom, the kind that once removed drives holiness, values Jehovah God and all His manifestations and motivations; spiritual wisdom is driven by the fear of the LORD, for which Jesus Christ’s physical death stands as an emblem. The answer to our question: What is wisdom? may be succinctly put as, the fear of the LORD—wisdom is the fear of the LORD.² This (fear of the LORD dynamics) is knowledge from Jesus Christ rightly assessed. The answer to Job’s question follows quite easily then—Whence cometh wisdom? Wisdom comes from Jesus Christ (Isa 11:1-3).

IV. Understanding

If wisdom is the fear of the LORD, and is built up from knowledge of the Lord, what then is understanding in this framework for holiness; what is the role of understanding, for it certainly fits into this framework. Here it serves us to distinguish clearly understanding from wisdom, for in the process of doing that their separate roles will emerge. As wisdom leans on knowledge for guidance, so understanding leans on wisdom, but not for guidance. Understanding is the highest level of cognition and the most profound. Wisdom has rightly assessed knowledge so as to stand poised to make further right assessments per se. Understanding in turn assesses wisdom and discovers expression. Expression is a much higher, more profound abstraction than guidance. For our purposes, understanding discovers the expression of the fear of the LORD. Understanding concludes that the fear of the LORD is to love Him, and as such to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. Understanding concludes that this gives expression to wisdom, to the fear of the LORD (Job 28:28). It is clear that such expression is quintessential holiness because this is an expression tethered to the ways of God. The ways of God are succinctly, and tangibly, manifested by what He loves and what He hates. Understanding, by way of wisdom, gives expression to the ways of God, and God’s holiness is completely contained in His ways. This understanding is our goal in this life, in this phase of the holiness process at work in us. It is by His grace that we attain to it, for in that grace is contained His knowledge of the fear of the LORD from which this understanding ultimately emerges (Psa 25:12). That Grace is identically Jesus Christ, who, in sundry ways, has taken care to reveal to His Bride this knowledge for her sanctification (Jhn 17:5-8 , Jhn 17:17-20). This is part of His ongoing ministry, for God has not issued the command of holiness without ensuring that there be available to the believer a clear path to attain to it. This knowledge our Lord brought when He came, and the Holy Spirit, in His Name, expounds the same until our Lord comes again (Jhn 14:26). The revelation of our God through Jesus Christ and now through our timeless Worker is precisely the holiness of our God revealed (see table 2).

V. Holiness

To completely love what Jehovah God loves, to completely hate what He hates, this is the holiness goal we seek to attain; holiness itself then comes through action, that is, the doing of the same. It is not hard to appreciate that this is tantamount to loving Him completely; that loving Him completely is holiness. Heaven must operate on such a basis. Holiness is therefore complete and unreserved absorption into the ways of God, and separation from everything contrary to that. One can appreciate the complete love the Son has for the Father in this light, for in His death on the Cross the Son manifested this sort of complete agreement with the Father—may one respectfully say in a human-expressive sort of way that “Jesus was never holier” than when He was dying on the Cross; we say this reverently understanding that His holiness is not measured by degrees—it is holiness in its fullest expression. There is in such love, nay, such holiness, left not a trace of self. It would follow that the holiness process cannot be completed in us presently because of the hindrance of sin; that is, our traces of self absorption and their unholy manifestations of disagreement with Jehovah God. But thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ, for in His acquiescence, His complete agreement with the Father, that is, His consummate holiness, He has taken our sin away, and so He has cleared the way for the consummation of the holiness process at work in the believer today. One day, when at home with Him, we shall sing His praises and thank Him for the holiness He bought and wrought in us. We cannot fully appreciate today the eternal blessings this surpassing holiness shall bestow on us by His grace—one supposes that this life by contrast will be a constant reminder to us in that day of the failure and futility and sorrow attending unholiness; these recollections in that day will surely only quicken our appreciation of holiness then. In that day all will love what He loves, and hate what He hates (Isa 11:9, Jer 31:34), and we have an idea how excellent, how good and wonderful, how fruitful, His ways are, for our Lord in His person has demonstrated them to us. We as believers have much good and wonder to anticipate thanks to Him. It is a joy, nay a wonder, to think that we shall be holy like our Lord one day.

VI. Concluding Comments

In this pulpit we have discussed holiness by way of a framework that included knowledge of and from our Lord, the wisdom, that is, fear of the LORD derived from that, and the understanding that gives expression to this wisdom—total absorption into the ways of Jehovah God. We have proposed that such active absorption, itself fostered by way of understanding, is holiness. Well, it is the goal clearly outlined—consummate realization of the same will, as a consequence of sin, come when eternity future begins for a given believer. That is not to say prayerful efforts in that regard are to wait until then—one must prayerfully strive to be holy today. To serve that goal, the shepherds of God, His ministers, have a calling to work with our Lord in the holiness process at work presently in His Bride to be. Jesus’ ministry largely stands on two legs, and notice how highly linked these are:

1. He came to die on a Cross and redeem humankind; He did that.

2. He came to reveal God (1Jo 5:20), that is, His ways; specifically, His holiness. He did that, and, through His Spirit, He is doing that.

The former clears the way for the imparting of the latter (Jehovah God’s holiness)—one could say that the former serves the attainment of the latter; that the imparting of the latter is the end-goal of the former—for the sake of consistent, eternal, holy fellowship between Him and us (=Salvation). Jehovah God’s desire to fellowship with humankind is the “big picture” of Christian Scripture. It is His desire for this fellowship that ultimately gives meaning to the love of God, and the expression of this deep love is found at Calvary.

Believers, particularly God’s shepherds, have a calling to assist Him with leg two above ( notice that (2) above is precisely dissemination of knowledge; the sweet knowledge of God’s holiness revealed in Jesus Christ). God’s shepherds must, perhaps more than anyone else, resolve to do this by their preaching, their teaching, and especially by their walk; they must preach, teach, and demonstrate this holiness often. They must conduct workshops³ on it, and show it to be something nearby and ultimately attainable—show that folk can make Spirit-led strides toward its attainment today. We are His hands and feet after all.

May our Lord instill in us all a deep yearning for His holiness, and a greater appreciation of its supreme value as the identifying expression of divinity. May He help us all to appreciate more fully that all of our great savior God’s painstaking labors on our behalf have had, and have, as their ultimate goal, our holiness like unto His own. This is tremendous that He would do that for us, seeing what holiness like that signifies. Thank you falls so pitifully short my Lord…

Praised be your name great savior God.