Call to Holiness

Let me begin with a question:
What if we have become so concerned about proving that we are God's people that we have forgotten to become the kind of people God is calling us to be?

That sounds like a serious accusation.

It isn't an accusation. It's a question Paul forces us to ask.
Because when we hear the word holiness, what usually comes to mind?

Standards. Dress. Diet. Entertainment. Sabbath observance. Doctrinal purity. Separation from the world.

And none of those things should simply be dismissed.
But Paul gives us something deeper to examine. He tells people who have been reconciled to God to live differently because God now dwells among them.
He speaks about affection.
He pleads with them to open their hearts.
That is significant.

So, holiness begins with how we relate to people?

It certainly includes it.
Paul's concern isn't merely, “Are you separated from the world?”
It is also:
“Has reconciliation with God changed the way you treat one another?”
Because we can become very good at looking holy while remaining closed to God at the heart.”

Are you saying we can be very strict about holiness and still not be holy?

Absolutely.
And this is where the lesson becomes uncomfortable for us.
We rightly place enormous value on truth.
We talk about correct doctrine, the Sabbath, the sanctuary, the remnant, about being God's last-day people.
But here is the question Paul puts before us:
What is all that truth producing in us?

• If our doctrine makes us proud rather than humble...
• If our remnant identity makes us feel superior rather than responsible...
• If our knowledge makes us more critical of others but less patient with them...
• If our separation from the world produces separation from people...

then something has gone terribly wrong.

But surely being the remnant matters.

Yes.
But the question isn't simply:
“Are we the remnant?”
It is:
“Does our life reveal the character of the God we claim to represent?”
Because Paul says, in effect:
God dwells among you. Therefore live like people in whose midst God dwells.

Holiness is not an attempt to make ourselves acceptable to God.
Holiness is the response of people who have already encountered God.

Then separation from the world that Paul talks about isn't the foundation of holiness?

No.
God is.
And that distinction could change the way we understand holiness.
We sometimes begin with:
“What must I stop doing?”
Paul begins with:
“Who now lives among you?”

The Christian becomes holy because God is doing something within him.
And that holiness should eventually become visible.

• Not only in what we refuse to watch. But in how we speak.
• Not only in what we eat. But in how we treat people.
• Not only in what we believe. But in how we forgive.
• Not only in keeping ourselves separate from the world. But in becoming people through whom God can reach the world.

Then could someone truly be extremely careful about outward standards and still be spiritually unclean?

Yes.
A person can avoid every questionable movie and still harbor hatred.

• They can keep every Sabbath rule and still wound people with their words.
• They can defend every doctrine and still have no tenderness.
• They can proudly identify with the remnant and still make other people feel like outsiders.

And Paul would ask:
What kind of temple is that?

That makes holiness much more demanding than keeping a list.

It does.
Because holiness isn't merely what we keep out.
It is Who lives within.
And perhaps that is the tension we need to carry home.

We should absolutely ask:
What must I separate myself from?

But perhaps we need another question just as urgently:
“What kind of person am I becoming because God dwells in me?”
Because if reconciliation with God does not produce reconciliation with people...
If truth does not produce love...
If doctrine does not produce Christlike character...
If being God's people does not make us look more like the God we claim to belong to...
then perhaps we have become very good at protecting the temple while forgetting the presence of God within it.*

Paul's call is not simply:
“Come out.”
It is:
“Come out because I have come in.”

That is the heart of holiness.

And perhaps the most searching question for us is:
If someone spent a year among us without hearing our doctrines, would our lives convince them that God really dwells among us?