Holiness, for many people, is like this elusive thing that we know we should be grasping after (or we've at least been told we should be), but we aren't really sure what it is exactly we are grasping after or how to grasp after it.
Holiness is first, the defining characteristic of who God is. It is the characteristic that the seraphim call out back and forth over and over to one another about the Lord God in Isaiah 6, "holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is fully of his glory." Then out of God's holy character flow his acts...they are holy because his character is holy. And, because his essential nature is holy, all his acts are holy. Yeah, but what is "holiness"? Holiness is separateness, otherness. Holiness is purity, without sin, without imperfections.
So, what does that mean for us when God says to us in 1 Peter 1:16, "you shall be holy, for I am holy". God calls us to be holy and expects us to be holy, set apart for himself and pure and undefiled by the world. What does holiness look like in our world today? And, if we aren't pursuing holiness, what does that say about the Christianity we profess (Hebrews 12:14)? How do righteousness and purity relate to holiness that we pursue? What about Christian liberty (Romans 14)? How does the concept of "distinctiveness within the culture" fit into the conversation?
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