Leviticus 20:26

Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the Lord am holy.

Holiness enforced

I. Let us endeavour to explain the meaning, and the force of that reason for which holiness is so universally enjoined. “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.” And so God’s holiness is made the motive for ours. And why? The Lord our God is holy; therefore should we labour to become so likewise, in order that we may become like Him in the most lovely and glorious of His attributes. We should labour to become like Him in the most lovely and glorious of His attributes in order that by so doing we may become well-pleasing in His sight; and, by becoming well-pleasing in His sight, to attain to that eternal happiness which God hath prepared for all those who, because they are like Him, He will condescend to love.

II. Having seen why the holiness of God is proposed to us as the motive to become holy, let us proceed to examine into the nature of that holiness which we are commanded to imitate, that we may have a model of that which we are to pursue.

1. First of all, then, we are taught that God is a Spirit. As the heavens, therefore, are higher than the earth, so also must we place our conceptions of what constitutes the essential holiness of the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, above the pollution of every earthly passion. Therefore in knowing, in the first place, what is the model of that holiness of God which you are to pursue, you must first of all remember that no earthly pleasure, no carnal imagination must have a place within the sanctuary of the heart. The utter banishment of all these lusts, then, both from our minds (lest they be defiled), and from our actions (lest they become unholy), must be the first of our labours, must be our perpetual care.

2. But God is not holy in Himself alone, He is holy also in His acts towards every creature in His power. And herein we have another point on which we are to labour after the similitude to God’s holiness; we must throw aside every regard towards the persons of men, which courts the lofty, which rejects and despises the lowly man; we must account the welfare of all an object of our care; we must consider none too mean to be helped by our hand--none too high to mete out to them things which are expedient and their due. We must think of all, we must feel for all, we must be just to all; and so to show forth the similitude of God’s holiness to all.

3. Thus holy in Himself, and holy in His acts, God is holy, in the third place, in the manner in which He regards both sin and the sinner. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil; and the wicked, though he be exalted, shall not stand in His sight, for He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. To turn, then, away our eyes, lest we look upon vanity, and to separate ourselves from all commerce with ungodly men--to give no encouragement to transgression, nor to the transgressor--to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove them, both in word and deed--these are the duties to which in imitation of God’s holiness this third particular would more particularly direct us.

III. But who is sufficient for these things? Imperfectly as we have delineated the holiness of the Lord, few as are the features which we have had time to detail, yet who can consider his own failings in life without confessing how feebly he has attained to the conformity of the Almighty’s holiness? When the text is taken in itself, as the measure of the duty required of all, and when we compare it with our weak and wavering performances, there is nothing left for man but destruction and despair. But the same God, who hates every unholy person and thing, has made a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. Christ has fulfilled the law of holiness for man; and He who knew no sin, has been made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is at once the apparently great mystery, and this the consolation of our religion. (C. Benson.)

Ye shall be holy

There are three ways in which we may take these words. First, as simply the statement of a fact; the Lord, speaking in prophecy, says you shall be holy; you cannot help being holy, for you belong to God. He has chosen you. Thus every saved one becomes dedicated; and whatever is dedicated is “holy”; and, therefore, you being dedicated, you must be “holy.” Another interpretation might be (still prophetically), “You shall be holy.” The Lord God Omnipotent shall see to that. But then the promise bears upon that word “your.” “Your God.” If He is really your God, the God you have chosen, the God you have loved, the God you have served, the Cod really in your heart, your God, then He will take care and make you holy. But though both these interpretations of the verse are admissible, and true, and comforting, I think it is evident that they are not the meaning which is chiefly intended. “Shall” is not meant to be a future tense, but the imperative mood, It is very frequent in the Bible; a strong imperative, a positive law to be holy. “Ye shall be holy,” and for this reason above all others, “because the Lord your God is holy.” The creature must be like his Creator; the child must be like his Father; the scholar must be like his Master; the sinner must be like his Saviour. “Ye shall be holy.” It is your first duty to be “holy.” The reasons why we should be “holy” are very many. We are made capable of holiness. That is a great fact. Our former convictions and feelings point us to holiness. We have to do with “holy” things. Everything that we see, and everything we touch is “holy.” God has provided a way by which we may be “holy.” Holiness, even in this world, is the highest happiness, and we are made fit for and trained for a holy world beyond--a holy eternity. But besides and above all this our best and highest reason for anything is always what we find in God Himself. “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.” It was God’s primary principle at man’s creation. “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” Therefore God made man “holy.” And when man lost his holiness, God, being very jealous about it, immediately proceeded to provide a way by which we could recover it. But what is holiness? The Greek word for “holiness” is compounded of two words which mean “without earth,” free from earthliness. Or we may take holiness to be that which has God for its Author, and God for its end; or that which matches with God, and is fitted for His service and His glory. Or sanctified purity. Or, as we have seen, that which resembles God, and is dedicated to His service and His glory. A reflection of Himself, or one or other of His attributes. A reflection of His holiness. Now the great and all-important question is, How is “holiness” to be attained? How do we, who are so very far off from holiness, become holy? In its great outline, I should say the answer is this: First, you must be, and realise that you are, a member of Christ; a Christian. Made so by your baptism, and your membership ratified and confirmed by the solemn words and vows which you yourself have made, and the many inward feelings in your own heart, and the many communications which you have had with God from time to time. Being, then, a member of Christ, and Christ your Head, the Holy Spirit, which was poured upon you at baptism, must hold His true place in your heart. The great work lies all within the Trinity. The Father gives you to the Son, the Son gives you to the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost gives you back to the Son changed and sanctified. Sanctified, but still a poor sinner. And the Son cleanses you with His blood, and clothes you with His own righteousness, and gives you back to the Father, through Him and in Him holy, holy enough for heaven, holy enough to stand in God’s holy presence. (Jas. Vaughan, M. A.)

Holiness; -

I. The holiness of saints depends upon no outward condition, requires no special gift of nature or of providence, of understanding or wisdom, nay, i may say, of grace. It need not be shown in any one form; it does not require the largeness of any one grace; still less does it consist in austere sadness, or stern constraint, or rigid severity as to ourselves or others, except as to our sins. The blessed company of the redeemed saints have and have not found one road to heaven. One road they found, in that they were saved through one Redeemer, looking on to Him and believing in Him before He came or looking to Him when He had come. But all else in their outward lot was different. They were “redeemed to God out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation.”

II. Holiness was made for all. It is the end for which we were made, for which we were redeemed, for which God the Holy Ghost is sent down and shed abroad in the hearts that will receive Him. God did not will to create us as perfect. He willed that we, through His grace, should become perfect. But what He willed that we Should be, that, if our will fail not, we must become. His almighty will vouchsafes to depend on ours. What God commands; what God wills; what God so willed that He made us for this alone, that we should be holy, and being holy, should share His holiness and bliss--that must be within our reach if we will.

III. The mistake of mistakes is to think that holiness consists in great or extraordinary things, beyond the reach of ordinary men. It has been well said, “Holiness does not consist in doing uncommon things, but in doing common things uncommonly well.” Few can ever do great things, and the few who can do them can each do but few. But every one can study the will of God, and can give great diligence to know it and to do what he knows. Your daily round of duty is your daily path to come nearer unto God. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

Godly distinctiveness

I. A unique code of moral and sacred laws. “Ye shall keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and do them” (Leviticus 20:22). No other people had a standard of morals, or a directory of religious regulations comparable to these.

II. A studious avoidance of the customs of ungodliness. “Ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations,” &c. (Leviticus 20:23). Conformity to the world was prohibited. However sanctioned, or desirable, or seemingly harmless, the customs of the ungodly were to be shunned.

III. A cautious selection of social enjoyments and indulgences. “Ye shall put difference between clean and unclean,” &c. (Leviticus 20:25). Palate not to be gratified, tables not to be spread with promiscuous viands. God’s wish and word were to rule them in every enjoyment, and self-restraint was to mark them in every gratification.

IV. A heritage of special privileges as God’s people. “Ye shall inherit their land, a land that floweth with milk and honey,” &c. (Leviticus 20:24). Sinners lose earthly felicities, as the penalty of their impiety: “therefore I abhorred them” (Leviticus 20:23). The godly possess rich heritage of good as the mark of God’s favour: “I will give it unto you to possess” (Leviticus 20:24).

V. A seal of divine sanctity resting upon them: They show themselves to be--

1. Divinely “separated” (Leviticus 20:24), from other people. Their history and career attest God’s dealing with them as with no other people.

2. Divinely sanctified. “Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people” (Leviticus 20:26). For the very “beauty of the Lord” rests upon the character and conduct of those He redeems. Note:

(1) God claims His people: they are not their own; may not follow their own desires and delights; He is their law, they must surrender to Him. “That ye should be Mine” (Leviticus 20:26). It is a blessed fact co belong to God: but it carries its obligations.

(2) Privileges are conditioned upon fidelity (Leviticus 20:22). The inheritance would be forfeited if obedience were withheld. All God’s covenant promises to us wait upon our loyalty to Him. “Ye are My friends if ye do,” &c. (W. H. Jellie.)

A holy God requires a holy people

The various laws which the Jews received from God through the medium of Moses were all meant to promote social, personal, political, national morality; to keep the people distinct from infecting elements around them, separated and hedged off from the possibility of contagion; so that whatever defiled them might be seen not to come from others, but to rise from the depths of their own fallen and depraved hearts. “Therefore I have separated you from all people, that ye might be unto Me,” He says, “a peculiar people”; and the great end that He contemplated constantly was their holiness--that they might be a holy people. The word “holy,” in fact, means properly, separated--set apart to some purpose or object or end. But in order to make their holiness still more likely He presented ever before them a grand model. “Be ye holy,” is His constant phrase, “for I the Lord am holy.” “Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the Lord am holy.” It is well known that a people become, to a great extent, what their god or their gods are. The gods of the heathen were most of them monsters of lust. Jupiter was depraved; Mercury was a thief; others of their gods were infected with the greatest crimes; as if their villainy upon earth gave them a title to a niche in the Pantheon of heathenism. You must expect, from such gods in the theology of a people, bad lives in the history of that people. If the model be so bad, how low must the imitator and the worshipper be! But before the Jews there was placed the magnificent ideal of all that was holy, pure, just, perfect. The nearer they approached God, the nobler they became; the farther they receded from Him, the more degenerate they became. They had the standard infinitely remote, but infinitely perfect, ceaseless approximation to which was their nation’s strength, its glory, and its happiness. Thus the Jews were selected that they might be holy. They had a model constantly before them they were to imitate, that they might be holy. And they were chosen for this grand destiny not because of their own virtues--for, strange enough, their very mercies the corruption of their hearts turned into their own merits, and the more God favoured them, with a perverse ingenuity the most remarkable, when we know it was so often rebuked, the more credit they took to themselves; and He tells them that He chose them, not because they were greater or more excellent than any other nation, but because, in His own sovereignty, He set His love upon them. Thus they were hedged round with ceremonial laws; they had presented before them a perfect, infinitely perfect, Model; they were selected by distinguishing grace in order to reach and strive after this great destiny; they had ringing in their ears every day the law, “Thou shalt love,” which is translated into practical language, “Thou shalt be holy,” in order that they might obtain the end for which they were chosen and blessed and favoured--to be a separated people and a holy people to the Lord. Now, what the Jews were meant to be nationally we Christians are meant to be personally. We, too, are selected and favoured for this purpose; and we shall find all the economy of the New Testament constantly contemplates the holiness of God’s people as the great end and object and aim of our Christian privileges and blessings and mercies upon earth.

I. But, first of all, let us define what holiness is. The word means simply separation. So the Latin word sacer, from which comes our word “sacred,” is employed to denote profane as well as sacred--means wicked as well as holy. Hence the expression “Auri sacra fames,” literally translated, “The sacred thirst of gold,” but strictly and properly, “The accursed thirst of gold.” The meaning, therefore, of a holy person is one severed or separated to something; and when applied to that which is pure and just and true it means separated to God. And we can only form an idea of what holiness is by seeing it defined by God, as embodied in His character and explained at length in His Word. Holiness in a Christian is just separation, sanctification, severance from the excessive love of things lawful, from the forbidden love of things sinful, to the growing love of what God has commanded in His holy Word, and of the grand image that God has depicted in every page of His revelation.

II. Now having seen what this holiness is, let me state, in the next place, how Christians in the new testament are constantly associated with it.

1. They are elected to it. He has chosen us in Christ from the foundation of the world, that we should be holy.

2. Now, this holiness, in the next place, is true and lasting beauty; it is real and original beauty. The King’s daughter has all her beauty within, that needs a spiritual eye to discriminate and discern. The mass of mankind can only see glare, pretension, gaudiness, but the true Christian sees a city where the world sees none, for Christ, when He came to His own, His own recieved Him not; there was no beauty in Him that the world should desire Him.

3. And this holiness, too, of character is the highest possible honour. It is the livery of Heaven; it is the very robes of the King of glory; it is the dress which He prepares for His own; it is the Apocalyptic garments “white and clean, which are the righteousness of saints”; it is the raiment white and clean which no moth can gnaw, which no rust can decay, which no thief can break through and steal.

4. Arid, in the next place, this holiness is fitness for heaven. A man without an ear cannot enjoy music. In the same manner, a person without a sanctified heart, without holiness, is not fit for heaven.

5. In the next place, it is the distinguishing mark of the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this that makes a Christian; and without this he cannot see God or put forth any valid claim to be a Christian at all.

6. In the next place, the Holy Spirit is the Author of this holiness.

III. Thus we have seen what this holiness is and who is the Author of it; let me notice now that all the institutions of the gospel are meant to promote it. Preaching is meant to promote it; sacraments are meant to promote it; the reading of the Bible is meant to promote it; the teaching of teachers is meant to promote it; all our schools and institutions, our preaching and hearing, our praying and communicating, are all helps that, by the blessing of the Spirit of God, bring us nearer to Him who is the Fountain of all holiness, of all light, and of all life.

IV. And in the next place, all the chastisements of God’s providence are meant to promote this. (J. Gumming, D. D.)

Holiness

Holiness! There is sweet music in the very name. It tells of sin subdued, of boisterous passions lulled, of fiery lusts becalmed, of miry paths made clean. It sets before us a pure walk, where peace and joy go hand in hand, and scatter heaven-born fragrance round. Holiness! To cause this lovely plant to thrive, its roots to deepen, and its branches to bear fruit, is one grand purport of the scheme of grace. The Lord’s own voice proclaims, “Ye shall be holy: for I am holy.” Holiness falls short when it falls short of God. But perhaps you say such glorious lustre is too bright for sight. The heavenly sunshine dims the dazzled eye. But still draw near. God’s Holiness, in human form, has visited and trod our earth. Jesus takes flesh and tabernacles here. His walk in our soiled paths is clean as on celestial pavement. Mark every act. Hear every word. They have one feature, holiness. Mark next the soil in which this flower has roots, the seed from which it springs. Man’s pride must here lie low. It never thrives in Nature’s field. Neither can hand of Nature plant it. When sin came in each gracious fibre died. The curse fell blightingly on earth, bat most so on the human heart. The thorns and briars of the outward world are dismal emblems of the wilderness within. God’s likeness was effaced at once, and hideous enmity established its one rule. How, then, can holiness revive? Until the waste becomes a garden the plant cannot be set; until Heaven gives the seed it can nowhere be found. God must prepare the soil. God must infuse the seed. The work is wholly God’s. Next mark the renovating means. The wondrous engine is the gospel truth. The Spirit wins by charming notes. He opens ears to hear new melody. He gives the eye to see new scenes. He reveals Christ, the beauty of all beauty. He shows the cleansing blood, the sympathising heart, the perfect refuge, the all-sufficient aid. These sights wave a transforming wand. A new affection subjugates the man. Jesus and purer hopes now occupy the mind. Darkness is passed. The true light shines. The grace of faith springs up. This is the chain which binds the soul to Christ and makes the Saviour and the sinner one. A channel is now formed by which Christ’s fulness plenteously flows down. The barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem. Christ’s vital juices permeate the whole. The limbs receive close union with the head, and one life reigns throughout the total frame. (Dean Law.)

Example of holiness

Christ is the Pattern, the Sample, the exemplary Cause of our sanctification. Holiness in us is the copy or transcript of the holiness that is in the Lord Jesus. As the wax hath line for line from the seal, the child limb for limb, feature for feature, from the father, so is holiness in us from Christ. (M. Henry.)

Influence of holiness

There is an energy of moral suasion in a good man’s life passing the highest efforts of the orator’s genius. The seen but silent beauty of holiness speaks more eloquently of God and duty than the tongues of men and angels. Let parents remember this. The best inheritance a parent can bequeath to a child is a virtuous example, a legacy of hallowed remembrances and associations. The beauty of holiness beaming through the life of a loved relative or friend is more effectual to strengthen such as do stand in Virtue’s ways and raise up those who are bowed down than precept, command, entreaty, or warning. Christianity itself, I believe, owes by far the greater part of its moral power, not to the precepts or parables of Christ, but to His own character. The beauty of that holiness which is enshrined in the four brief biographies of the Man of Nazareth has done more, and will do more, to regenerate the world and bring on everlasting righteousness than all the other agencies put together. It has done more to spread His religion in the world than all that has ever been preached or written on the evidences of Christianity. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)

Sanctification, what it is

The saintly and learned Archbishop Ussher was frequently urged by a friend to write his thoughts on sanctification, which at length he engaged to do; but a considerable time elapsing, the performance of his promise was importunately claimed. The Archbishop replied, “I have not written, and yet I cannot charge myself with a breach of promise, for I began to write; but when I came to treat of the new creature which God formeth by His own Spirit in every regenerate soul I found so little of it wrought in myself that I could speak of it only as parrots, or by rote, but without the knowledge of what I might have expressed, and therefore I durst not presume to proceed any further upon it.” Upon this his friend stood amazed to hear such a confession from so grave, holy, and eminent a person. The Archbishop then added: “I must tell you we do not well understand what sanctification and the new creature are. It is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his own will to the will of God, and to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love, as a whole burnt-offering to Christ; and oh l how many who profess Christianity are unacquainted experimentally with this work upon their souls!”

Holiness defined

At one of the ragged schools in Ireland a clergyman asked the question, “What is holiness?” A poor Irish convert in tattered rags jumped up and said, “Please, your Reverence, it’s being clean inside.”

True holiness

True holiness is a plain and an even thing, without falsehood, guile, perverseness of spirit, deceitfulness of heart, or starting aside. It hath one end, one rule, one way, one heart; whereas hypocrites are, in the Scripture, called “double-minded men,” because they pretend to God and follow the world; and “crooked men,” like the swelling of a wall whose parts are not perpendicular nor level to their foundation. Now rectitude, sincerity, and singleness of heart are ever, both in the eyes of God and man, beautiful things. (H. G. Salter.)

The ideal Holy One

And have you never cried in your hearts with longing, almost with impatience, “Surely, surely there is an ideal Holy One somewhere, or else how could have arisen in my mind the conception, however faint, of an ideal holiness? But where? oh, where? Not in the world around, strewn with unholiness. Not in myself, unholy, too, without and within, and calling myself sometimes the very worst of all the bad company I meet, because that company is the only company from which I cannot escape. Oh! is there a Holy One whom I may contemplate with utter delight? and if so, where is He? Oh I that I might behold, if but for a moment, His perfect beauty, even though, as in the fable of Semele of old, the lightning of his glances were death.” (Charles Kingsley.)

The Mount of Holiness

In elocution there is what rhetoricians term a “second voice.” It comes after an orator has been speaking sufficiently long for his lungs to become thoroughly warmed. The diversified ligaments and muscles and membranes which compose or influence his vocal organs then take on a more perfectly adjusted action, and the voice grows flexible and full and rich, able to express “thoughts that breathe and words that burn.” There is a vision known to opticians as “second sight.” In their later years many people come into possession of this. They can lay aside their spectacles, worn perhaps for a quarter of a century, and with the naked eye read the finest print. I have seen octogenarians whose eyesight was apparently as good as in the palmiest days of their youth. There is a mental perception enjoyed by multitudes of thinkers which seems to them like a “second intellectuality.” It is broader, clearer, and more satisfying than was the first. It is reached after a night-time of doubt and darkness, during which one’s theories seem like chaos and one’s beliefs like desperate guesses. It comes after a transition period, when, like Noah’s ark, the mind can find no Ararat on which to anchor. Then breaks in a new light; the shadows flee, the heterogeneous mass of speculations begin to crystallise; a form appears, and he who had well-nigh become Diogenes the Cynic begins to develop into Socrates the Philosopher. So there is a “second religious experience,” deeper than the first. It lies beyond the surf of unbelief and partial consecration, and is reached by launching out into the deep of an unreserved dedication to God. Many have attained unto it and enjoy “the rest of faith.” Others are hungering after this more perfect righteousness, and will not hunger long in vain. Multitudes more are wishing for but making no determined efforts to secure it. They are like travellers ascending the valley of Chamounix, who catch glimpses of Mont Blanc, and though longing to stand on its glittering summit, have no expectation of ever doing so. I recall a memorable Sunday afternoon when, from an hotel window in Geneva, seventy miles distant, I caught my first view of that celebrated landmark. The setting sun was transmuting, as no other alchemist ever could, its whole immense top into one gorgeous mass of burnished gold, and the desire to visit it came upon me like a spell. But the city of Geneva, with its bright stores and historic church and marvellous watch factories, its bridges across the crystal river, and its romantic lake, lay at my feet, and I fingered; and when at last I sought the shining mount, like most tourists I was satisfied to reach its base and gaze upon it from below. So it is with thousands of Christians. Before their raptured vision rises, in their best moments, the Mount of Holiness. They sigh for its lofty experiences, but still view it from afar, or journey no farther than its foot-hills. Would they but climb its rising footways and scale its magnificent peaks, a second and deeper experience would be theirs. (Sunday School Record.).