Be Holy, For I am Holy - Ezekiel 22-23 and I Peter 1
Israel knew what God expected of them. Ever since they came out of Egypt Moses and the prophets had been telling them that God was holy, and He expected them to be holy, too, since they belonged to Him. It is a simple concept. Holy means set apart. It means special and different. God is holy because He has nothing to do with sin, and He always does the right thing. He wants all of His people to strive to meet that ideal. He desires for us to be separate from sin and to be engaged in doing the right things, instead of the wrong things. In this way, the people of the world would see the difference and be drawn to believe in God. The problem was that Israel missed this ideal. They did not try to be holy. They tried to be like the Gentiles. In fact, they copied everything they saw the Gentiles doing. Therefore, they were not acting like God's children, and He had to punish them. God chose to give them over to their lusts as their punishment. They got what they wanted. They lived in a foreign land among their idols. God does that to us today. If we want to rebel, He allows us to go our way and receive the consequences. All the while He is longing to bless us, if we will just be holy.
Peter gives us a great explanation of holiness. He tells us to be thankful for our salvation which comes by the grace of Jesus, His blood, and His Word. We can't save ourselves, and we didn't save ourselves. However, we can strive to be holy like Jesus. We can honor the one who saved us by following Him. We can and should ask Him to make us pure like Him, so we can be good witnesses to those around us. After all, we are saved from sin, not saved to sin. Jesus forgives our sins, and He wants us to get as far from sin as we can get. That is being holy. That should be our goal. I pray that we all understand the benefits of holiness and the pitfalls of compromising with sin. One leads us closer to the Lord and His will for us. The other leads us to destruction.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 24-26 and I Peter 2.
Peter gives us a great explanation of holiness. He tells us to be thankful for our salvation which comes by the grace of Jesus, His blood, and His Word. We can't save ourselves, and we didn't save ourselves. However, we can strive to be holy like Jesus. We can honor the one who saved us by following Him. We can and should ask Him to make us pure like Him, so we can be good witnesses to those around us. After all, we are saved from sin, not saved to sin. Jesus forgives our sins, and He wants us to get as far from sin as we can get. That is being holy. That should be our goal. I pray that we all understand the benefits of holiness and the pitfalls of compromising with sin. One leads us closer to the Lord and His will for us. The other leads us to destruction.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 24-26 and I Peter 2.