“ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” - 1 Peter 1:14-16

God called His people to be holy since the time of Exodus. Jesus reinforces the call when he declared that we have to be as perfect as God Himself. Some say that God called us to be happy, and not to be holy. This is not entirely correct. This is because an unholy man is not entirely and truly happy. If you read the Scriptures more carefully, you will discover that God has called us to be holy in an ungodly world. It is holiness which sets us apart from the world and truly aligns us with God, His providence and sovereign power. Therefore, we have to pursue and practice holiness to the glory of God and for our good. The word of God today teaches us to be holy. Holiness means obedience to God’s commands and righteousness by God’s standards. The Ten Commandments did not specifically or directly command us to be holy. Rather, the Book of Leviticus does.

While some of these rules in Leviticus may not make any sense to us today, I believe strongly that what sets children of God apart is their faith and trust in God in what God has commanded us to do. For instance, not eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not make sense to Adam and Eve, but God required their obedience. Offering up Isaac as a sacrifice to God made no sense to Abraham, but he obeyed God by his willingness to do so. So for us to be holy, we must obey all aspects of the word of God by faith and humility with a hope that God who called us to obedience would not mislead us. Jesus says holiness is not an external jamboree, but a matter of the heart. A man is not defiled from without but from within and thus Jesus declared all foods clean. We have to be holy because the word of God says so. To do otherwise is to be disobedient; we are to be holy to be like God, our Father, who called us to be holy. Therefore, we must not be conformed to our former lusts; we are to be holy by imitating God because God is Holy. Though the Christian has died to sin and been raised to newness of life in Christ, he or she must also choose to serve God and turn from their former lusts. They must no longer allow sin to master them.