The Holiness of God

I was talking with a buddy about the attribute of God’s holiness.  How many people often think of holiness as being about sin and that he is not tainted by it.  But that attribute is more on his righteousness.  His holiness should be better understood in that he is utterly and completely different from anything in the universe.  And as we talked about that we began to speak on the implications of this attribute.  Because he is wholly and completely different from everything he should be treated as such.  

My friend spoke about how we worship.  He posed the question “do we honor and adore God differently than everything else?”  He definitely deserves it based on the fact that he is utterly different from everything.  There are things in this world that deserve to be honored and adored but there is nothing that should be honored and adored like him.  This is where worship comes in.  There is nothing that should be worshiped in this world except for God and God alone for he is alone in who he is.

Jesus says that compared to our love for him, everything in this world should look like hate (Luke 14:26).  That is the greatness of the chasm between our love for him and our family, friends, and the things of this world.  Do we love him with this intense a love? Do we honor and adore him with this intense a passion? What would our lives look like if we did? Would ascribing him this unique and complete adoration inform and change every relationship we have and how we view the world and the things in it?

A proper view and understanding of God’s holiness informs so much because we begin to recognize that because he is so different means he’s not like us.  He is truthful and trustworthy in everything. I heard a sermon and the pastor said we often think of God as being like us.  He gets annoyed and angry at us when we continually go to him with the same things.  We ascribe to him attributes that are in us because it helps us to relate to him (this can be helpful in some things). But we must remember his Holiness.  He is not like us.  He is unique in who he is and will not fail in the things we so commonly do. His word is true. His love is genuine.  He is great. 

I encourage you to remember his uniqueness and therefore worship him uniquely.  Remember that because he is in a classification of his own that we should not make him like us.  Let us praise God and trust in him because he is infinitely trustworthy.