"Holy Behavior"

  Why don't we know much about the holiness of God? Peter speaks to the Christian that "like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior." (I Pet. 2:15) Holy behavior. What comes to your mind? Perfection? That's where most go when speaking of holiness.

  God is holy, the Holy One. Anyone who claims to stand in relationship to Him should have in their heart holy behavior. David speaks in Psalm 15 asking who may stand in the presence of God, dwell on His holy hill? The answer: those who walk (live) with integrity. A person of integrity is concerned for right and wrong and what is true. They speak truth in their heart. Read the Psalm and you will see those who may stand in God's presence.

  But holiness reaches even further. At the heart of a person of integrity (and God) we find discernment. They distinguish between what is common and what is not common. All mankind is common, made the same. But those who have come to Jesus, finding their sins wiped away, given a new self made in the likeness of God, they are no longer common. They belong to God and they know it! They know others who stand in this same relationship are not common either. They treat the church as God's holy ground. It has an effect on their attitude, their actions and speech. They live a life of holy behavior.

  Many wonder how to attain that kind of holiness. Look to Jesus! Jesus is the holiness of God in the form of man. He lived with God, for God, desired God's truth and lived by that truth. That's not common! That's holiness. When we find that God desires us to be conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29) then there has to be the power and ability to attain to that or God lied. The problem lay is most do not put forth any effort to come to know Jesus. They only want to know facts. It becomes a life of head knowledge rather than a life of holy behavior. Holy behavior has discernment at its core. Many cannot discern what is proper and improper. They can when it comes to BIG sins or issues but no discernment in living their lives and what they involve themselves in.

  Here we find ourselves first, presenting ourselves back to God because of His mercy toward us. Show yourself alive to God by offering your whole being back to God as a living and holy sacrifice. Your body, you life is no longer common ground. It's God's ground! Here is where many fail. If there is no offering back, there will be no progress from this point. Integrity will not mean much. There will be little discernment. The result? No transformation into the image of Jesus because the mind is not being renewed from His word. We will at best hit and miss on being holy in our behavior. The bottom line is holiness is found in Jesus which should be found in us who claim Him!