What Does It Mean to "Be Holy"?

Today is the Day of Atonement, the holiest of holy days. It's a day on which God commanded us to humble ourselves and afflict our souls. Three times in Lev. 23:26-32, He commanded us not to do any manner of work on this day, saying, "And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people" (Lev. 23:30).

It takes no more than a quick skim-reading of the Bible to discover that holiness is critical to God. God is holy, and He commands His people to be holy as well: "As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Pet. 1:15-16).

What does it mean to be holy? How can we be holy? How can we keep holy the days which God commanded us to keep holy?

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word qadosh (Strong's # H6918) means "sacred, holy, pure, clean." Most times you see "holy" in the Old Testament, it's this word or related words. Qadosh itself comes from qadash (Strong's # H6942), which means "be set apart, consecrated; be pure, clean."

In contrast, the Hebrew khol (Strong's # H2455) means "profane, unholy, common." Unholiness is common. Holiness isn't.

In the New Testament, the Greek word hagiazo (Strong's # G37) is the most frequently used word for "holy" or "sanctified." It means, according to Thayer's Greek Lexicon, "to separate from things profane and dedicate to God, to consecrate and so render inviolable."

To be holy is to be set apart, to be clean or undefiled. To keep something holy is to set it apart from other things, to keep it clean and undefiled by those other things.

What defiles us? What should we keep ourselves clean from?

Sin. This world.

Jam. 1:27 tells us, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

1 John 3:10, in the same vein, says, "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother."

1 John 2:15-17 adds, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

The way of this world — the way of lust, pride, and selfishness — is contrary to God's nature and His laws. To be holy as our God is holy, we must be separate from the world.

Does this mean we should regard the people in the world as less than us, as scum on the soles of our shoes? That we should shun them and turn our backs on them? By no means!

Jesus prayed to the Father on our behalf, "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15).

The Apostle Paul, too, wrote, "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world" (1 Cor. 5:9-10).

We aren't to shun the unconverted or to treat them poorly. We are to shun the ways of this world, but not necessarily the people of it.

We also need to be cautious, however, and remember that "evil company corrupts good habits" (1 Cor. 15:33). Spending our time in seedy bars and back alleys with drug addicts and prostitutes isn't what God called us to do! That's not keeping ourselves separate from the world and set apart to God.

Since being holy means being separate and set apart to God, what does that mean for His Sabbath and annual holy days?

It means that they, too, are separate and set apart to Him. They aren't like other days. They aren't days for us to go out and mingle with the world or dwell on the cares of this world.

They're days for us to come out of this world and spend time with God. They're days to spend time with Him and our fellow believers, not the people of the world. They're days to forget the cares of this world and let God take care of them for us.

As the Feast of Tabernacles approaches, let us remember that God's holy days are just that — holy! We are to rejoice before Him, but let us not get carried away and forget that we are to be holy as He is holy, nor let us forget to keep His Sabbath and holy days holy!