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Have you ever had someone come to you and tell you that someone else said you had done or said something that goes completely against your character? How do you respond to them?
I had someone come to me and tell me that they heard that I had said something against another person and it was very disturbing to them. My response was to ask them if I had ever given them any reason to believe, that in my character, I would do such a thing.
They thought for a minute and said “no”. You see character matters when it comes to the way we live and the things we do. If someone says we have done something that goes against our character would it not seem right to check it out before jumping to conclusions?
When it comes to God, His character, His attributes, makes all the difference in how we perceive Him and His actions. There is one attribute of God’s that amplifies all the others, His holiness. God would not be God if it were not for His holiness.
The holy character of God is what sets Him above all of mankind and it is what is supposed to set us above others outside of Christ as well. If we are a Christian, that is we have asked Jesus into our hearts as Lord and Savior, asking for forgiveness of our sins and placing Jesus as Lord over our lives, then we are called to be holy in character just as our God is holy in His. None of us gets a pass on this; every one of us believers is called to be holy as our God is holy. Character matters to God. Keeping up with the Jones’s. One of the problems we come to when we think about being holy is that we tend to compare ourselves to those around us; this is called a cultural holiness, keeping up with the spiritual Jones’. This is not at all what God desires, that we look like others, we are supposed to look like Him, conformed to the character of His holiness. What was that? “How in the world do we do that?” We do that by walking in obedience to His commands and His will for us. When we walk in obedience to God something begins to happen in us, we begin to be conformed to the image of God. Our whole being; soul, mind, affections and wills come into harmony with that of God’s. Rom. 12:1–2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. When you think about God’s holiness what picture comes to mind? His holiness can best be described as His majesty, purity and moral perfection, all qualities of character because character matters. But, holiness is one of God’s attributes, the one that makes Him perfectly God. Holiness is as important as His existence because holiness makes all He does right and just.
Can we say that about ourselves? That we always know what is right and just? More often than not we agonize over these kinds of decisions. We ask, “Is this the right thing to do?” God never asks that question because He knows what is right and just, and because of His holiness He never hesitates to do it.
God’s holiness is perfect and because of that it is always free from evil intent. 1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. Just as darkness can not exist in light so no evil can exist in God, He is the essence of moral purity. Character matters and because God is holy He always conforms to His own character. All His thoughts and actions are consistent with His holy character, unlike us, who so often falter in living a consistent holy life. We easily get caught up in unclean thoughts, bitterness, grumbling, vengeance and what ever else we struggle with. This never happens to God and because it does not He expects the same of us. This is why He says be holy as He is holy. There you go again, “How can I be holy like God is?” Sometimes we look at holiness as if it were a bad thing, it is not. Think about the benefits of God’s holiness; if God is perfectly holy than we can be comforted that His every action toward us will always be right, just and perfect. I know there are times when we question that and complain about the circumstances we are in. Often that is when the enemy or one of his minions comes charging in to tempt us to sin against God in some way, like Satan did with Eve. Gen. 3:4–5 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The one thing Eve forgot was that because of God’s holiness He can never be unfair to us, more often He is more merciful to us than we deserve, because He is holy in all His actions, including mercy. How do you feel when someone hurts you by complaining about you? The holiness of God is a faith issue for us to grapple with, that God is holy and because character matters He will only act toward us in what is right and just. When we complain against God saying He is unfair we are saying He is unholy. It would be less hurtful to Him if we just denied His existence rather than to doubt His character. To complain against God is to act wickedly, Job 40:1-14 Instead of complaining about God’s holiness we should be praising Him for it as Moses did. Ex. 15:11 “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? Even Jesus tells us to lift up God’s name as holy. Matt. 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, How many times have you read in the scriptures about God’s holy name? One scholar says that the prefix holy is used before God’s name more than any other attribute of God. If we were to think about the attributes of God without holiness attached to His character, He would cease to be God. It is His holiness more than anything else that makes Him worthy of praise. But God demands more of us than we just acknowledge His holiness. He commands us His children to be holy as He is holy because character matters. He rightfully demands perfect holiness in all His moral creatures. It is because of His perfect holiness that He does so. He can not ignore or approve of any evil committed by His people. Doing so would mean He lowered His standard, something He can not do because He is holy. Hab. 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. This also means He can not overlook or excuse away any sin we commit, no matter how small it may seem to us. To Him it is an offense. His holiness does not allow for our flaws or short comings, that is why we are told to make every effort to be holy. Heb. 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Thank God for Jesus who paid for all those sins we hope God overlooks but does not.
Because character matters we are blessed by God’s holiness because He will never tempt us to sin. James 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; There are times when we feel like we have no choice but to sin in some “small” way. Judges 3:4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses. But we always have a choice not to sin. 1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. When we fail to trust God and do what is right there will be consequences for it. Because God is holy He hates sin. Hate is the only word that truly depicts how God feels about sin. Zech. 8:17 do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the LORD. The more we grow in holiness the more we should and will hate sin as well. Psalm 119:104 I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. od is a holy God and hates sin more than we can imagine. We need to be careful not to be trifle with sin, excusing them away, when God hates them. We need to change our thinking about this; every time we sin we are doing something God hates. There is no peaceful coexistence with sin in our lives; sin is one thing God never ceases to hate. This is one of those things that we need to transform in our minds so we hate sin as much as God does. Gen. 39:9 How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”
Youth who complained that he could never get away with anything. When we live in peaceful coexistence with our sin we are asking for discipline from God over it. God is not partial to any person that He would overlook sin in our lives. VS 17. In fact He seems to judge the sin of His people harder than those who don’t know Him. Seem to be harder on our own. Why? Because we represent Him here. Heb. 12:4-12 The more we think about the holiness of God the more, hopefully, we will recognize our unholiness and take action to change it.
All of this should make us more grateful to Christ for His sacrifice so we could enjoy the grace from it to learn to live a holy life, the life God commands us to have. He says be holy because He is holy. Character matters, especially to God.
