God tells his people in no uncertain terms to "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16; Lev. 11:14). It is obviously a command that we can't follow apart from God's grace. Nevertheless, it is a clear command for all followers of Jesus to actually be holy.
If you are anything like me, you care about what other people think of you. You and I struggle with valuing man and man's opinion over God and His opinion. In fact, I struggle with wanting people to think I'm holy. If I am to be brutally honest with myself, sometimes I don't care so much about actually being holy- rather, I care that others see me as holy. However, since those around me can't see my heart, my thoughts, and my desires, I can fool them into thinking of me as holy by a few simple tasks. Serve in the church, post a few Bible verses on twitter, and make friends with other holy people. God, on the other hand, I cannot fool with my faux holiness.
When we exhibit this attitude, it disgusts God. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean" (Matthew 23:25-26).
That describes my sinful heart at times. If the outside of the cup is clean, and you think I'm holy, my spiritual mission is accomplished, and my work is done. That is simply detestable. What I must care about is actually being holy before God, regardless of whether others think of me that way or not! I paraphrase an old friend from The Master's College who said, "I'd rather be a holy man with no reputation than an evil man with a holy man's reputation."
How about you? Do you really want to be holy? Or do you simply care that others see you as spiritual? What does it mean to truly be holy before God?
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