How should we live in light of God saying, "Be holy for I am holy" (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16)?

Having unfolded these great and blessed facts, the apostle turns aside to exhortation in verses 13 to 17. The great advance which marks Christianity as compared with Judaism entails a corresponding advance in the character of Christian life and behaviour. We are now children and call upon God as our Father, but we are to be obedient. On the one hand, we are to be braced up mentally, marked by sobriety and confident hope; on the other hand, we are to avoid the old desires which mastered us when we were in ignorance of God, and to be holy in all our conduct as God Himself is holy. What God has revealed Himself to be sets the standard for all our conduct. Moreover, the One whom we call Father is the impartial Judge of the work of each, hence, reverential fear becomes us. He is Judge, but He is our Father, and we are before Him, therefore, in filial fear.

And because the Father who has called us is holy, this same character is to be seen In all His children In every department of life. Even the Old Testament (Lev.11:44) had said, "Be ye holy, for I am holy;" not "because the law requires it." If true then, how much more so for those who know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! This is loving conformity to a Person, not demanded conformity to a law; and it involves the love of what is good, the abhorrence of evil.

The Bible speaks of a once-for-all sanctification (our ‘position’), which applies to all believers, and of practical sanctification applying to our walk. Positionally all believers are saints on the basis of the work of the Lord Jesus: ‘By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all’ (Heb. 10:10; cf. v. 14). But God’s wish is that we should correspond practically to what we are positionally. ‘As children of obedience, not conformed to your former lusts in your ignorance; but as he who has called you is holy, be ye also holy in all your conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy’ (1 Pet. 1:14–16).

It is well to see that the personal holiness of God's people — their entire separation from all manner of uncleanness, flows out of their relationship to Him. It is not upon the principle of "stand by thyself, I am holier than thou;" but simply this, "God is holy," and therefore all who are brought into association with Him must be holy, likewise. It is, in every way, worthy of God that His people should be holy. "Thy testimonies are very sure; holiness becomes thy house, O Lord, for ever." What else save holiness could become the house of such an One as Jehovah?" If any one had asked an Israelite, of old, "Why do you shrink so from that reptile which crawls along the path?" He would have replied, "Jehovah is holy; and I belong to Him. He has said "Touch not." So, also, now, if a Christian be asked why he walks apart from the ten thousand things in which the men of this world participate, his answer is simply to be, "My Father is holy." This is the true foundation of personal holiness. The more we contemplate the divine character, and enter into the power of our relationship to God, in Christ, by the energy of the Holy Ghost, the holier we must, of necessity, be. There can be no progress in the condition of holiness into which the believer is introduced; but there is, and ought to be, progress in the apprehension, experience, and practical exhibition of that holiness. These things should never be confounded. All believers are in the same condition of holiness or sanctification; but their practical measure may vary to any conceivable degree. This is easily understood. The condition arises out of our being brought nigh to God, by the blood of the cross; the practical measure will depend upon our keeping nigh, by the power of the Spirit. It is not a man setting up for something superior in himself — for a greater degree of personal sanctity than is ordinarily possessed — for being, in any wise, better than his neighbours. All such pretensions are utterly contemptible, in the judgement of every right-thinking person. But then, if God, in His exceeding grace, stoop down to our low estate, and lift us into the holy elevation of His blessed presence, in association with Christ, has He not a right to prescribe what our character is to be, as thus brought nigh? Who could think of calling in question a truth so obvious. And, further, are we not bound to aim at the maintenance of that character which He prescribes? Are we to be accused of presumption for so doing? Was it presumption in an Israelite to refuse to touch "a creeping?" Nay, it would have been presumption of the most daring and dangerous character to have done so. True, he might not have been able to make an uncircumcised stranger understand or appreciate the reason of his conduct; but this was not his province. Jehovah had said, "Touch not," not because an Israelite was holier in himself than a stranger; but because Jehovah was holy, and Israel belonged to Him. It needed the eye and the heart of a circumcised disciple of the law of God, in order to discern what was clean and what was not. An alien knew no difference. Thus it must ever be. It is only Wisdom's children that can justify her and approve her heavenly ways.

We read, "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear," 1 Peter 1:15-17. The Lord always judges according to the place into which we are brought, according to the position in which we stand. And so do we of others, in some sort. For instance, I judge of those who are within my house differently from what I do of those without; I say, not to a stranger, but to one brought into my house, You must have clean habits to live here. God is dealing with us on the ground of grace, yet of holiness; for holiness is with us as much a part of grace as any other blessing. "Be ye holy, for I am holy" is the expression of intimacy, and comes not merely in the way of command. Grace must make us holy, "partakers of his holiness." See Hebrews 12. It is not God requiring man's holiness, but making us partakers of His. What could we wish more? Love does it, and we are made partakers of that which separates God from all that is inconsistent with Himself - holiness, not mere innocence. Innocence is the ignorance of good and evil; you would not say that God was innocent, bull holy. He makes us "partakers of his holiness." It is "his holiness" - the knowledge of evil as He knows it, and ability to rise above it. The holiness is as much a part of the grace, as the love that does it.

This section of Leviticus contains the words of Jehovah addressed to His people, whom He had redeemed and in whose midst He dwelt. They are to be a holy people. About thirty times in this section we find the solemn word "I am Jehovah. Ye shall be holy: for I, Jehovah your God, am holy." This is Jehovah's calling for His people. Four times in the beginning of this chapter the Lord tells His people "I am Jehovah" (verses 2, 4, 5 and 6). His name was upon them and therefore they are to manifest holiness in their life and walk. This demand and principle is unchanged in the New Testament, in the covenant of grace. His people are exhorted to walk "as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as He, who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:14-16). Brought nigh by blood, knowing the blessed relationship into which Grace of God has brought us, our solemn duty is to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of holiness and power, is bestowed upon us that we can walk in the Spirit and fulfill not the lusts of the flesh. Israel was not to walk after the doings of the land of Egypt which they had left, nor after the doings of the land of Canaan whither they were going. And the church is told the same thing in the New Testament. "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness through greediness" (Eph. 4:17-19).

The chapter begins with God's assertion, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (v. 2). Holiness involves, not only acting rightly, but loving what is good and hating what is evil. Thus, Israel was to be totally and feelingly on God's side. True regard for mother and father is linked with the keeping of the sabbath days, which was to express regard for God (v. 3).

Respect for and delight in God's holy will and Word and joyful bowing to it is essential to holiness in man. Lack of respect for God's will is sin—the very root of all sin. Obedience because of fear of punishment is not holiness. True holiness is an abhorring in our very souls of what is evil and a keeping at a distance from it because the soul is set upon that which is good and pure by reason of its real delight in everything that is according to God.

This brings us to another important element of holiness. There is no practical holiness except in the measure we are walking in conscious communion with God and all our being and thoughts and ways are held consciously under His eye. We must speak as before Him; we must think as in His presence; we must talk as having Him for our listener; and walk as imitators of Him and in the footsteps of our Lord. To have any less standard before us is not God's standard of holiness. Is not this what Christ did? And should we not seek with Paul that we may in truth say, "For to me to live is Christ"? (Phil. 1:21).

The Lord grant that none of us may put aside those solemn truths! To neglect His warning is the very thing that tends so far to bring about the state of things of which we have been speaking. That which carries away in this direction now is slighting the words of God; though we shall in the end be fulfilling them to our own shame. We shall be proving how little we have known of real heart-subjection to God — how little we had appreciated the grace in which we stand, and how little rejoiced in the hope of His glory. We shall manifest that we have not counted it an honour to bow, and to give up what we may like, or what others might like for us, where it was really a question of God's will. For to us this should decide all; because "we are sanctified unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," that is, to the same character of obedience which marked the Lord Jesus here below. It is not Christian to obey Christ merely because we must. Christ never obeyed thus. If a man only does a thing because if he does it not he knows he must be punished, it shows plainly that his heart is not in it — he does not want to obey. Christian obedience is the desire of doing a thing because it is the will of God, and the Holy Ghost gives us power through presenting Christ to our affections. Remember that to this we are sanctified. Cleansed by the blood of sprinkling, instead of its being a menace of death, as in Ex. 24, we are sanctified unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. We are not under the law but under grace, and led of the Spirit of God. May we enjoy the power of His spirit and the fulness of His salvation! Bear in mind however, that we are thus saved, not for ourselves, but to obey after the same pattern and measure of obedience as that of Jesus.