All #ourCOG News 5.0
Can we be holy? The bible say be holy as i am holy. What it means literarly?
Discussion
47 comments
-
When Jesus said be as Holy as Him he was trying to make them see that they couldn’t be. He told the rich man to go sell all he had. He told them if they call someone a fool, speak in anger without a cause, look on a woman with lust, they’ve committed a sin. You can’t be as Holy as Jesus because you are not God. You are a sinner. Jesus himself said there is only one good and that’s God. The righteousness we obtain is by faith, it’s not our own. That doesn’t mean we don’t strive for perfection. Just as long as we know that we aren’t and that we are only saved by grace.
-
A standard to aspire to.
-
Of course we can – we are commanded to!
How? Jesus taught us, all the way through Scripture. Start with the Ten Commandments, read the Sermon on the Mount. Keep the Golden Rule.
The flip-side is to avoid sin. Sin damages your relationship with God, and at a certain point, severs your relationship completely 1 John 5.
-
To be holy means to be set apart or separate from sin and evil. God is holy—completely separate from everything that is evil (1 John 1:5). God calls us to be holy, just as He is (1 Peter 1:16, quoting Leviticus 19:2), but it’s vital to understand that apart from God this is impossible. We must have the Holy Spirit indwelling us and filling us with His holiness. We can only live a holy life through the power of the Spirit; thus, the first step to living a holy life is to accept Jesus as Savior (Ephesians 1:13).
Once we have taken that step of salvation, we are declared righteous (Romans 5:1). But what does it look like to be actually righteous—to live a holy life? In 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8, Paul emphasizes sexual purity as part of holy living: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God” (verses 3–5).
Beyond avoiding sexual immorality and keeping sex within God’s design for marriage, we can live a holy life by being obedient to God in all areas of life (1 Peter 1:14–16). Knowing and obeying God’s Word is key (John 17:17). Hiding God’s Word in our hearts keeps us from sin (Psalm 119:11). When we live in obedience to God, we are staying separate from evil. We are offering our bodies as “living sacrifices” to God (Romans 12:1–2). The purpose of living a holy life is to glorify God and display His nature to those around us (Matthew 5:16). Living a holy life of obedience to God is living in true freedom from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:6).
It’s not always easy to choose obedience to God, especially if we’re trying to do it all on our own. Satan would love nothing more than to bring us back into bondage through disobedience. But we have the promise, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The Holy Spirit will produce Christlikeness in us, and, as we yield to Him, we can live a holy life (Galatians 5:16).
Here is the mindset we should have: “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). Any time we face temptation, we should say, “I’m dead to that! That was part of my old life! I am a new creation in Christ!” (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). To live a holy life, to separate ourselves from sin, we must see ourselves as God does—as born-again children of the Most High, clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
We also have the benefit of being part of the Body of Christ. Fellowship with other Christians and making ourselves accountable to them is a great source of strength in living a holy life. As Christians, we are called to encourage one another in this matter (Hebrews 10:24–25).
Remember, we are not trying to live a holy life in order to earn salvation; living a holy life is a natural outgrowth of being saved by God’s grace and filled with His Spirit. It is also important to not give up when we mess up. When we fail, our response should be to confess the sin and keep moving forward in our Christian walk (1 John 1:9). Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God’s grace doesn’t go away when we make mistakes.
-
To be holy is to follow God’s law.
-
To strive to be like Christ every day of our lives. God knows we fail but he also knows we try.
-
Yes, believers can be holy, although it’s a tall order, God meant it. Set yourself aside from the worldly, and you can be holy.
-
Apart from sin
Romans 6 vs 12 -
Holy just means “set apart”
It means we are to be set apart from the world and into God’s kingdom, purpose, glory, righteousness, and likeness
-
Be Holy as your Father in heaven is holy. Yes indeed we are to strive for Holiness. And this not merely by our own efforts, for that would be a futile endeavor, but through the help of the Holy Spirit who works in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure . Yet it is something we are actively called to do.
Note that this does not only refer to the Holiness imputed to us upon believing, us some claim, but a holiness acquired by living according to the commandments of God. -
To be holy means to be set apart. We are called to a different way of life. A life free from sin. Alive in Christ and not bogged down by the shackles of sin and death.
-
1 Corinthians 3:17 ESV
If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.Romans 12:1 ESV
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. -
There are a couple of things we need to understand about this statement. In the first place, the word that is translated “perfect” literally means “be complete.” So often, the New Testament and the Old Testament will describe people as being upright and righteous—not in the sense that they have achieved total moral perfection, but rather that they have reached a singular level of maturity in their growth in terms of spiritual integrity. However, in this statement, it’s certainly legitimate to translate it using the English word perfect. For example, “Be ye complete as your heavenly Father is complete.” Now, remember that your heavenly Father is perfectly complete! So if we are to mirror God in that way, we are to mirror him in his moral excellence as well as in other ways. In fact, the basic call to a person in this world is to be a reflection of the character of God. That’s what it means to be created in the image of God. Long before the Sermon on the Mount, God required the people of Israel to reflect his character when he said to them, “Be ye holy even as I am holy.” He set them apart to be holy ones. The New Testament word for that is saints.
Now to the question of whether we can, in fact, achieve moral perfection in this world. If Jesus says to be perfect, the assumption would be that he would not require us to do something that is impossible for us to achieve. Therefore, there are Christians, many Christians, who believe that, indeed, it is possible for a person to reach a state of moral perfection in this life. That view is called perfectionism, and people develop a theology whereby there’s a special work of the Holy Spirit that gives them victory over all sin or all intentional sin that renders them morally perfect in this world. The mainstream of Christianity, however, has resisted the doctrine of perfectionism chiefly because we see the record of the greatest saints in biblical history and in church history who to a person confessed the fact that they, to their dying day, struggled with ongoing sin in their lives. Not the least of which, of course, was the apostle Paul, who talked about his ongoing struggle with sin.
Can a person be perfect? Theoretically, the answer to that is yes. The New Testament tells us that with every temptation we meet, God gives us a way to escape that temptation. He always gives us enough grace to overcome sin. So sin in the Christian life, I would say, is inevitable because of our weakness, and because of the multitude of opportunities, we have to sin. But on a given occasion, it is never, ever necessary. So in that sense, we could theoretically be perfect, though none of us is.
Taken from Now, That’s a Good Question! Copyright © 1996 by R.C. Sproul. Used by permission of Tyndale.
-
Let us clearly know this. God knows that we can never be Holy like him but, he also knows that we can obey him, abstain from evil in our daily life, that is the reason why he said this
-
To obey Christ is to be Holy
-
Bianca Coleen Del Rosario
-
Holy – distinctive unique purity of caracter.That s what i think.
-
It means someone set apart for special use. When applied to God, it refers to his utter perfection and complete transcendence over creation. God’s people are called to imitate his Holiness. (Leviticus 19:2 ), which means being set apart from sin and reserved for his purpose. Lev.19:1-4 the term holy means ” set apart, unique and distinct.” Human holiness means imitating God, become and act like him. 1Peter1:15-16.
-
You have to have the attitude of loving What God loves and hating what God hates
You won’t be holy, not in this flesh but you must strive for holiness
We are all sinners believers or unbelievers
But there’s a difference between someone who fights sin and embraces God and someone who fights God and embraces sin -
Question: In the Bible when Moses was told to remove his sandals because he was on Holy ground, What made the ground that he was standing on Holy
-
In another way; Holiness is to be like Jesus Christ who is already holy in me. Thanks
-
The Greek word means be separate. We are in the world but not of the world. Obedience may not be the perfection of our life, but it ought to be the direction of our life.
-
Holy simply means”set apart” and set apart means “separated one”
-
Yes, through faith in Jesus Christ; our holines. ” THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. ” ( Jeremiah 23:6)
“Bless are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled .”
( Matthew 5:6) -
The word holy means separate. A sheep can be separate.
-
God will not command you to be something that you can’t
-
holy means to separate yourself from all things that is contrary to gods will corithians 6-17 wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the lord and touch not the unclean thing;and iwill receive you 18 and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughter saith the lord almighty
-
Jesus said, “Be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect”
Well, Paul wrote that we are to leave behind the rudiments of our faith amd go on to perfection.
The bible shows and calls those who are dedicated to service of God are holy. and that God sees our faith and counts it, as righteousness.So, yes we can.
-
We can be holy as He is holy. We cannot be AS holy as He is holy.
In other words, we can be set apart, like God. But we can’t be as set apart as God is.
In a way it makes sense when Paul says we are new creatures in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are set apart, different from the rest of the world. We can’t be as different from the world as God is, but we can still be in the category.
-
We are righteous because of Christ Jesus. We are called to be Holy, which is a radiation of that righteousness for the rest of the world to see. We are but a reflection, however, as Christ is the source of that holiness.
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”John 8:12
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””Matthew 5:16
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” -
First of all, it’s a command to walk in holiness! But that can only be accomplished through power of the Holy Spirit, because He is the one the is producing sanctification in our lives. In other words! Christ is my holiness.
-
If God commands he enables
-
It means that Jesus is inviting us to be like him. We are the children of God and Jesus is the perfect exemplar. Some day we can be as he is now.
-
Whatever term we use …holy…oh seperate…we are to do our very best with God’s help to achieve tge goal of his command. Would GOD give you a command to big that you cant keep , then send you to hell for disobeying ???
If God said it, it is possible for God cannot lie -
I believe sanctification is progressive and dynamic.Like Romans says who he calls he justifies.So Romans 8 speaks to.Same Paul says I press.Sound like activity on our part(Phillipians 3)
-
He says to be Holy but he doesn’t really expect it. We are told things to do every day that NO ONE can do.
It’s like demanding a 4 year old find the square root of 121 without a calculator.
My parents would threaten me with certain punishments if I couldn’t do adult things all the time, and they were right to to that, because Jesus does it to them. This is the reasonable faith 😉
-
You are made Holy through the work of God in your life. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior then you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit. Thus, you are Holy through God’s Son.
-
Being Holy also eludes to a righteous life. Holiness and righteousness are interconnected. You can’t be Holy and not be Righteous.
-
We will never be entirely sinless in this sinful body, but once one is born again and the Holy Spirit indwells them, He makes them holy and makes us hate sin and love God. Sanctification though, is a process. We are tempted and may stumble on our way, (though God always provides a way out,) but we keep with repentance (that is, leaving sin behind and following Jesus).
-
Via sanctification
-
We can not be Holy BUT through Christ we can be Holy.
-
The word Holy means set apart different. There is no one like the God of the Bible therefore He is Holy. As believers we can be Holy we can be set apart through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be like Christ conformed to His image, this being the set apart image bearer that we were originally created to be.
-
Wait a minute – most Protestants believe that we CANNOT be made holy, right?
-
Being set apart means being converted by the salvation doctrine of Paul’s gospel. When we verbally confess Master Jesus to save us because we believe that He died for our sins, and He was buried, Resurrected and witnessed – then we are holy; we are set apart. Jesus isn’t only righteous – He’s good, because He’s God. So, if we were completely “living righteously” on our own merits due to committing no more sin, we still wouldn’t be good – that is, we still wouldn’t be like Him. Therefore, being holy as He is holy has nothing to do with righteousness. No one is good but God. We can’t be like Him in that way (not even our own version of it). The way in which Jesus was set apart for a specific work is that He was dedicated to doing His Father’s work. Again, every Christian does glorify God by being Christians – by trusting Jesus to save us in the first place. God glorifies Himself by triumphing over some vessels and saving other vessels that He creates. He also does make the distinction for Himself about which vessels go where in *perfectly goodness*. See? Christians are set apart for *that* purpose. Not so we could take away His glory by drawing an imaginary line that says that if we sin too much we won’t have His great salvation any more or any such thing! He *does* cause us to love Him and love His things *even though* we Christians *had* reprobate minds. Not only our initial salvation (or justification, if you want) but also His choosing and predestinating and calling and also His glorifying of us is the great work He does in some of us who are identically Adam’s offspring just like the vessels of wrath! Fear God and worship Him – you know He deserves it and He is good – even more due to this important truth that completely outstrips how you are coming along with your pride and lust, etc. See? So relax, see His goodness, and *follow Him*. :^D He’ll take care of you, yo. Keep doing what He says! He’s silly fearsome…!
-
[…] Can we be holy? The bible say be holy as… […]
Comments