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1 Peter 1.15-16 NLT
You must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
I suspect that we all respond in much the same way to the command that we should live holy lives. We feel a closeness to Isaiah who went into the Temple one day and was overwhelmed by the holiness of God. He responded with embarrassment, not only because he didn’t feel remotely holy himself, but because he was conscious that he lived in a society that was anything but holy. I am sure we can easily identify with his response. But Isaiah learnt that it was possible for him to be totally cleansed and, in that incredible encounter, he was set free from his sin and commissioned to become a spokesman for God.
The word holy means separate or set apart. God doesn’t want our lives to be dragged down by the selfish and destructive influences of our society, but to be set apart for him and, just like Isaiah, that can only happen as we experience God’s forgiveness. A few verses later Peter wrote, “You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.” (1 Peter 1.22). Everything turns on our experience of God’s forgiveness. Without it we will continue to be held back by our sin, guilt and failures. We won’t be able to get on with living today because of the heavy weight of the past. But when we confess our sins from the past and receive God’s gift of forgiveness we can step forward into a new life which is characterised by love.
The danger with a word like ‘holy’ is that we assume that it is reserved for very special people. We think of people like Mother Theresa or Dietrich Bonhoeffer who lived exceptional lives and we are happy to associate the word with them. But the truth is that you and are I are called to a life of holiness, unholy as we know ourselves and our society to be. And all of that is made possible through the miraculous gift of forgiveness which God offers to us right now.
Question: What will it mean for you to be set apart for God today?
Prayer: Loving God, I confess that I have often let you down in thought, word and action. I ask you to forgive my sins and help me to live a life set apart for you. Amen
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