The Divine Purpose of Holiness

The Divine Purpose of Holiness

1Pe 1:13-16 NIV - [13] Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. [14] As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. [15] But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; [16] for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

From childhood we are taught we are to act holy. In particular, we all recall how we must act when in “God’s House.” Most of us accept this as the Lord’s commandment but do not consider the origin and purpose of holiness. But by comprehending the divine charter set before us, we can begin to comprehend just exactly what this business of holiness is and how we fit into it.

We need only to turn to Scripture to receive the purpose of holiness. In 1 Peter, Peter harkens back to an old Levitical commandment in his dissertation on holiness. The Israelites were commanded to “[b]e holy, because [the LORD, their God is] holy.” In this short sentence we obtain a wealth of understanding on the Lord’s purpose for holiness. Holiness is a state of being in which man imitates the nature of God in order to be one with God. It is the divine harmony—the sort of thing the philosophers and theologians have talked about in every age and in every religion. Holiness is the state of being whereby man achieves His divine purpose—to glorify and worship God.

That is why we see God instructing us on how we should behave. Many of us accept and obey God’s rules because we either believe we will go to hell if we don’t follow them or because we were taught by our parents, pastors, and Sunday school teachers how to act. Both of these are secondary reasons, however, for our reasons for holiness. We should examine our lives and follow God’s instructions so that we may be like Him. We must “be self-controlled” and not ‘conform to the evil desires [we] had when [we] lived in ignorance.” Because “He who called [us] is holy,” so we must “be holy in all [we] do.”

Notice the qualification of all. The very disturbing scenario present in modern Christianity is this silly business of being holy merely in “God’s House.” The first incorrect assumption is that the church building is God’s house. 1 Corinthians clearly states, however, that “[our bodies are] a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6.19). This should bring us to an interesting conclusion. The old misnomer that God’s church is a building and that it is where we should be most holy ought to be replaced with the Biblical truth that we are the body of Christ. This means that holiness should reside in us in everything we do, wherever we are. We as a collective body of believers are God’s Church because God lives in us. Therefore, let us spur one another onwards to holiness. Let us seek to build up an image of God worthy of His notice.

I hope you understand the purpose of holiness today. I hope that you will go out and begin to practice holiness not out of chains but out of freedom. Not out of ritual but out of Christ. May we seek to be in God’s image. May our actions seek to build up a holy body that mirrors Christ’s. For we know that one day we shall see Him as He is and as we ourselves our. How will we have acted during our life on earth? Amen.

With love in Christ,



Austin Aldrich