If there is ever a time to be holy, it’s during Holy Week. It’s a time to repent and reflect on the most transformative week in history. We respond to the week with remembrance and reverence.  

But before we approach the week with efforts to attain our highest level of holiness, we need to reflect on our call to holiness: not only what it means to be holy, but how we are to be holy. 

We first encounter the Lord’s command to be holy in Leviticus.

“You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” -Leviticus 19:2 ESV

What was said is important, but how it was said makes all the difference. 

Holiness is not a demand that the Lord wants; holiness is what the Lord wants for us. He wants us to be holy because our lives are lived to the fullest in holiness. He wants us to enjoy all the benefits of being truly holy.

And God’s idea of holy does not mean super religious or self-righteousness. Author Madeleine L’Engle says, “it is no coincidence that the root word of whole, health, heal, holy, is hale (as in hale and hearty). If we are healed, we become whole; we are hale and hearty; we are holy.”

Mute any history you have of hearing “holy” in a smug tone.

Whether we realize it or not, we read scripture in a certain tone. Just as our minds hear an author’s voice when reading a book or hear dialogue when reading a novel, we hear a certain tone and delivery when reading words from God.  

I worry we hear God speak in a booming, commanding voice, rather than words spoken as softly as a blessing. There are times God speaks in a whirlwind (Job 38:1), but He guides is in a whisper. (Job 26:14)  Read with the right tone, “be holy” is an invitation. 

In fact, all the commands God spoke in the Hebrew scriptures were given so that God’s people could draw near to Him. At the time, the law that was laid out in Leviticus was the appropriate way to respond to a holy God.  It’s a kind of rulebook, but wouldn’t you agree many relationships would be easier to navigate with a rulebook? Since God is holy, He knew His people would need to approach Him appropriately, but He didn’t want His people to wonder how or waste time figuring it out. 

The Lord’s command to “be holy” was not a command to challenge and prove; it was a call to be humble and follow the way God set to make us holy. God alone is holy, but we can dedicate ourselves to growth in holiness.

And we are still called to be holy today.

We are to be holy in all our conduct, not only in what we say and do, but in how we speak and carry ourselves.

“But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct” -1 Peter 1:15 ESV

Holiness is not something we work towards with grim determination but is allowing God to work within us and with us. This process looks nothing like the world’s strivings for self-improvement. We have an opportunity to submit ourselves to something better: sanctification. Author Whitney Capps said self-help is self-centered, while sanctification places God in the center and “self-help’s end game is my happiness, sanctification’s goal is my holiness.”  

After the Last Supper, on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus gave his disciples an overview of how sanctification leads to holy lives. It was a new concept to the disciples used to following the law. He said,

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” -John 17:17-19 ESV

It is through the sacrifice of Jesus that we are able to receive the gift of sanctification. During Holy Week Jesus consecrated himself, dedicating himself to God’s will, so that we could also dedicate ourselves to God’s will. Jesus went on to say, “I made know to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.” (v. 26)

Sanctification is a process of aligning with God and His holiness, all so that we can enjoy His love in our lives. 

Peter further described the process to life in holiness and laid out steppingstones to:

“…Supplement our faith with virtue, our virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.” -2 Peter 1:5-7 ESV

The path leads to love. 

Because if holiness allows us to draw near to God, and God is love, our lives will overflow with love when we continue to humble ourselves to sanctification.

During Holy Week, as Jesus drew closer to His holy sacrifice of love, we draw closer to God and His call to be holy. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Grace is a writer based in coastal Georgia. She invites readers to explore and wonder about the goodness of God and make their own faith discoveries. Her husband and cats cheer her on, swimming is her escape and cheese is her fuel.