This Little Light of Mine
What does it mean to “be holy”?
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, the answer is remarkably simple and practical. So simple and practical that you don’t need a seminary degree to understand this.
And yet, were I a betting man, I would be willing to wager that “be holy” means something vastly different than many of us have been led to believe it means.
You, my friend, are in for a treat!
First off, know that we will be threading together three main points. These three are: Holy, Peace, and Light.
However, before the connecting of these dots begin, let’s read 1 Peter 1:15-16
15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
What did God mean when he told us to be holy, as He is holy?
Well, the bad news is this: The world we live in is in a state of perpetual chaos. It can be scary, dysfunctional, and straight up chaotic.
Yet still, or future, eternal life is promised in John 3:16,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Yet, meanwhile, here on earth, in this life… God’s mission is to bring His peace to our chaotic world.
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people. (1 Corinthians 14:33)
God uses two specific instruments to bring His peace and light into our world: His chosen people and those who have been chosen by God to be grafted into the family of His chosen people. Therefore, being holy means that we are to bring His peace and His light into this chaotic world.
For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. 13 But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, 14 for the light makes everything visible. (Ephesians 5:8-14)
…you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)
So, what does it mean to be holy? It means to shine God’s perfect light (goodness/peace) into the darkness of people’s lives.
Therefore, holiness is linked to peace and linked to God’s light.
However, shining God’s light DOES NOT MEAN waving a judgmental finger of condemnation at the world. Being holy has nothing to do with being “holier than thou”. Because none of this conveys the goodness of God.
Rather, we should ask ourselves if, after an encounter with us – God’s people – is another person’s life flooded with light, or flooded with darkness? What do we bring to other’s lives? Light or darkness?
… so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. (Philippians 2:15)
At the very beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us:
“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:14-16)
THAT is what it means to be holy… to be a Christian.
(This podcast is by Dewey Bertolini. discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)