Be Holy Like Jesus Was Holy

Lalo Enriquez

The song encourages: “Take Time To Be Holy.” But why? Why should one take time to be holy? One good reason is that Jesus was holy and we need to be like Jesus. The word holy can mean at least a couple of things: 1) To be separate and, 2) To be pure. Jesus was both. One works with the other.

Jesus was separate from the world’s corruption, from its thoughts and its ways. He was in the world but He was not a part of the world and its sins. As a result of His being separate from the world, He was pure. Not once did He stain Himself with sin (Hebrews 4:15). Another aspect of this is that while having contact with people of the world, with “sinners,” people given to unholiness, His closest friends and associates were always those with a basic desire to also be separate and pure before God.

We, like Jesus, need to be separate. Not detached from life, reality, nor from responsibility. What the Scriptures teach is that one must abstain from worldly thinking and worldly ways. Society desires for us to submit to its ways. We can’t allow that and still be pleasing to God! In this respect, we must be continually separate from the world and always close toward God. Let us obey God and walk in His light. Let’s not obey the world nor walk in darkness. Let us learn to say no to temptation and to walk away from it. When this separateness becomes a part of our life, then a purity that pleases God will result.