JACQUES GAUVIN, RELIGION

Be Holy For I Am Holy

Peter, the apostle, was singled out by Jesus on a number of occasions. It was to him that Jesus gave the keys to the Kingdom, what he would loose on earth Jesus would loose in heaven and what he would bind Jesus would bind in heaven. It was to him that Jesus spoke and commanded that he feed His flock. It is very interesting to note that Peter was the only New Testament writer who used the whole expression "Be holy for I am holy."

Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 13 to 16 and let's take a few moments and listen to what Peter brought to mind.

1 Peter 1:13 to 16 (NKJV)
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but 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.”

This is a deeply spiritual, meaningful reminder and influence in our Christian walk with God, in our daily meditation and efforts to conform to and to do the will of God in preparation for our transformation and for our putting on Christ and in dealing with the people in our lives in our daily escapades.

How many times have we heard these words spoken "Be holy for I am holy"? How often do we repeat them to ourselves? How often do we sing these words? How often do we meditate on and ponder them?

In our darkest moments the words echo "Be holy for I am holy," IMPOSSIBLE. But the Bible also says that with God nothing is impossible. Impossible is Satan slivering into the conversation disrupting our religion. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

I find that when people 'stray' mystically into the spiritual they often leave the physical behind. How common in mainstream Christianity is it to hear that the law, sin and the old testament are done away with? How often do we hear the claim that someone is born again in the spirit and that they are therefore no longer in the flesh? You want to pinch them to give them a dose of reality.

Notice physical holiness.

"Be holy for I am holy," consider the impact that these words have on us Christians. The first two mentions of this concept and command are found in Leviticus chapter 11. Please turn there and we will read verses 41 to 45. Leviticus chapter 11 verses 41 to 45.

Let's look at the first occurrences of these words and get a real dose of physical reality, a real coming down to earth.

Leviticus 11:41 to 45 (NKJV)
‘And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth—these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination. You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them. For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness and is required for being holy. The vessel for holiness, your body, which is the temple of God, must be rendered holy. It is rendered holy and cleansed by not contaminating it with what is unclean and by only eating clean food. This is what is implied here in these verses.

The words abomination, abominable, unclean, defiled and defile used in this passage are the opposite in meaning to holy.

Consecrate and holy are synonyms.

God mentions the unclean things just before talking about being holy. He had already mentioned the clean animals that we may eat earlier in this chapter. The unclean animals are the larger group. He says 'every' and 'all' is unclean but He means everything else aside from the clean animals that He had previously listed that we may eat.

In this presentation I want to emphasize a physical side of being holy, taking care of your body which God has made you the caretaker of. Your body is where you will dwell for your whole physical life. If you take care of it by obeying God's dietary laws you will greatly increase your chances of having a long healthy life. You will greatly increase your chances of receiving God's blessings for He loves those who do His will. If you abuse your body by disobeying God's clean foods, dietary and health laws you will likely have a diseased, unhealthy life and may die prematurely.

Notice physical holiness.

Your body is where you dwell and enjoy the spiritual side of Christianity. The scriptures say that the physical is only worth a little when compared to the spiritual but without the physical you cannot enjoy the spiritual at all. The physical is not dispensable. It is not ignorable. It is worth little but it is still necessary, required, indispensable.

The number one way to take care of your body aside from breathing is eating properly, eating God's diet, eating clean, healthy food. We all know about clean and unclean food as mentioned in Leviticus chapter 11. Now consider some foods that are not mentioned.

What is worse than too much salt? No salt. Too much salt will make you sick. No salt will kill you.

Do you know that fruit juice has as much sugar in it as soft drinks, about 6 to 8 teaspoons per cup? Consuming too much sugar is the number one cause of diabetes.

Do you know that among the most dangerous foods that you can eat are purified staples like white sugar, white flour, white rice and white salt. Unrefined and less refined products, such as was common in biblical times, are much healthier.

You do know that whole grain flour was used for thousands of years before gluten ever became a grotesquely blown up problem.

Too much of anything is problematic. All things in moderation is a good general rule.

Small quantities, and sometimes generous quantities, of a large variety of foods, herbs and spices in your regular diet is a very good idea. God didn't create all these things for nothing. That being said, beware of dog and animal food.

Notice physical holiness.

Eating a healthy diet is part of the process of becoming holy.

God states in the parable of minas and talents that if you are trustworthy in little He will entrust you with much. The physical may be little but it must be properly attended to. It is the holy thing to do as it enables making you holy.

Is your health a problem? There are different ways of looking at problems; how to tolerate them, how to fix them and how to prevent them. We really need to do them all appropriately.

Let us do our best to take care of the physical temple of God which is our body. It is a holy thing to do.

In closing let's look at one more verse, Luke 16 verse 10. Please turn there Luke 16 verse 10 and I will read the New King James Version of it.

Luke 16:10 (NKJV) He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

2018 Jacques Gauvin