Holiness Isn't Just About Morality

The most common misreading of the Bible I’ve come across is treating its commands as applying only to our actions. In Western civilization, both unbelievers and believers have fallen into this trap, and the strange thing is that they even do it with passages that most clearly teach how obedience is more than just actions.

Take the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus teaches us that the Ten Commandments are about heart motivations and desires. Yet what do I hear coming from so many pulpits (or music stands)? "You thought the law was difficult; well, Jesus makes the Ten Commandments even harder to keep." And what do they do? They don't pause to ask why but launch into a series of techniques and steps to help you keep these 'new' commands.

This problem stems from the misunderstanding that sin is only an action issue, or that we're only sinners when we sin. We think we're okay as long as sin lies dormant within us, and that it’s 10 steps away from being defeated in our lives. That is why we think holiness is nothing more than a do-it-yourself program.

The apostle Peter rejects this approach when he writes, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

You might be thinking, “Isn’t that just more DIY holiness?” And it is—if you misread it.

The key phrase to catch is “as he who called you…” because it shows that holiness occurs within certain parameters. We aren’t holy by ourselves. Holiness occurs only in the lives of those who are called by the Holy One. 

We are to be holy because God is holy. This isn’t an idea Peter came up with; rather, he quotes the Old Testament. In fact, he quotes Leviticus, where this phrase appears seven times. What’s interesting is that Leviticus isn’t focused on the morality of God’s people—that’s what Deuteronomy was for—it’s focused on the consecration of certain objects and days for God’s use only.

What can an object do that’s morally pleasing to God? The answer is obviously nothing. So what is Peter getting at?

The point is that holiness goes much deeper than our actions. It reaches into the depths of our hearts—to who we are at our core. Holiness means being set apart from sin (that’s the morality part), but how often do we think about what we are set apart for? We are set apart for God’s use, and so Peter's point is that it’s not enough to simply avoid sin; even the good things in our lives need to be set apart for God.

It might sound like we’re splitting hairs at this point, since being set apart and living morally upright lives seem to go hand in hand and happen at the same time. But ultimately, it’s about our motives. If we simply become professionals at avoiding sin, we won't have anything more to offer God on judgment day than the Pharisees did. As Peter quotes Leviticus, he warns all Christians everywhere not to become whitewashed tombs—beautiful and clean on the outside but full of death inside (Matthew 23:27). He emphasizes this idea further in the next chapter, saying,

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

We have been set apart by God through His mercy. We belong to Him, and He is our God. Therefore, we must consecrate ourselves to Him and wage war against sin, which now wages war against us. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11).

Do you see how these motivations lead to action? Do you see how being set apart by God for God causes us to be set apart from sin?

Let us then be dedicated to worshipping and glorifying God in absolutely every part of life, just as the sacred objects in the Old Testament temple were.