September 17th, 2026
This week, I’ve been thinking about holiness. That may seem like an old-fashioned word, but it’s one of the most important concepts in the Word of God. 1 Peter 1:16 says,
“Be holy, for I am holy.”
What comes to mind when you think of holiness? For many, it would be “don’t do this, this, or that.” Religion, without a relationship with God, puts the focus on what not to do. Holiness isn’t about just abstaining from sin. It’s important to avoid sin, of course, but that can’t be the depth of our understanding of holiness. Our goal can’t simply be to avoid certain things, or we’ll be no better than the Pharisees who devised rules and regulations to appear holy. They thought if they kept all the rules about eating and washing that they would be holy, but it’s always about the heart. Jesus addressed this issue with them in Matthew 15:7-11. It says,
‘You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:
“These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.”
And He called the people to Him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”’
Jesus explained further in Matthew 15:17-20:
“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.”
That which we produce will demonstrate whether our hearts are holy. What we say and do must align with what we believe. A tree only produces after its own kind. An apple tree produces apples, and a peach tree produces peaches. If we have the Word of God planted in our hearts and we ensure that only truth is allowed to flourish in us, then we will produce only life. However, if there is compromise or mixture in our lives—if we allow weeds to grow in our hearts and try to also plant the Word of God—then we will produce confusion. James 3:10-12 says,
“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”
We see a contrast between blessing and cursing, fresh and salt water, and figs and olives or grapes. You can’t carry life and death at the same time! Anything we produce apart from the Spirit is a product of our flesh. Galatians 5:16-24 says,
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
In our culture, it’s an unpopular idea, but holiness and unholiness can’t coexist.
Righteousness and sin can’t be mixed. You can’t live for God one day of the week and for yourself six days of the week and believe your life is pleasing to God.
This brings me to what’s really been on my heart this week regarding holiness. The word for holiness in the original language means to “dedicate, separate, or set apart.” It has more to do with purpose than anything else. There were things dedicated as holy in the temple. That meant those items were used for only one thing—the service of the Lord. It was the idea of consecration. When something was dedicated to God for use in the temple, according to His instructions, it wasn’t sometimes taken out and used for other things. It was dedicated—set apart for just one purpose.
God is holy. There is no mixture in Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. By the blood of Jesus, we too are to be set apart—dedicated—for Him alone.
Hebrews 10:10 tells us,
“And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
The word for sanctified is that same word for holiness. It simply means “to be made holy” or “to be set apart.”
That means by the blood of Jesus, we have been set apart for God Himself.
Hebrews 9:11-14 says,
“He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Ephesians 5:25-27 says,
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
2 Timothy 2:20-21 says,
“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
We see the theme of holiness and sanctification throughout the Bible. In that last verse, we see the contrast between vessels of gold and silver and vessels of wood and clay. When we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, we are set apart as a vessel of honor. That’s about purpose!
We aren’t made to carry anything but the Holy Spirit. We were created to produce only that which the Word and Spirit produce in us after we’ve been washed in the blood of Jesus. We’ve been set apart for just one thing. We’ve been dedicated to Him.
This week, I encourage you, as I have, to take inventory of your fruit—the fruit of your thoughts, the fruit of your words, and the fruit of your actions. Are you producing life? Is the water flowing from your life the living waters Jesus promised, or salt water made bitter by the flesh? Are you producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit or the fruit of your flesh and efforts? Holiness isn’t just abstinence from sin, but an understanding of your purpose. You were washed in the blood of Jesus, set apart as special, consecrated, dedicated to God for just one thing. He saved you with a purpose! We are carriers of the Spirit of the Living God as we walk with Him, and there is nothing more precious than that!
“Be holy, for I am holy.”
What comes to mind when you think of holiness? For many, it would be “don’t do this, this, or that.” Religion, without a relationship with God, puts the focus on what not to do. Holiness isn’t about just abstaining from sin. It’s important to avoid sin, of course, but that can’t be the depth of our understanding of holiness. Our goal can’t simply be to avoid certain things, or we’ll be no better than the Pharisees who devised rules and regulations to appear holy. They thought if they kept all the rules about eating and washing that they would be holy, but it’s always about the heart. Jesus addressed this issue with them in Matthew 15:7-11. It says,
‘You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:
“These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.”
And He called the people to Him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”’
Jesus explained further in Matthew 15:17-20:
“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.”
That which we produce will demonstrate whether our hearts are holy. What we say and do must align with what we believe. A tree only produces after its own kind. An apple tree produces apples, and a peach tree produces peaches. If we have the Word of God planted in our hearts and we ensure that only truth is allowed to flourish in us, then we will produce only life. However, if there is compromise or mixture in our lives—if we allow weeds to grow in our hearts and try to also plant the Word of God—then we will produce confusion. James 3:10-12 says,
“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”
We see a contrast between blessing and cursing, fresh and salt water, and figs and olives or grapes. You can’t carry life and death at the same time! Anything we produce apart from the Spirit is a product of our flesh. Galatians 5:16-24 says,
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
In our culture, it’s an unpopular idea, but holiness and unholiness can’t coexist.
Righteousness and sin can’t be mixed. You can’t live for God one day of the week and for yourself six days of the week and believe your life is pleasing to God.
This brings me to what’s really been on my heart this week regarding holiness. The word for holiness in the original language means to “dedicate, separate, or set apart.” It has more to do with purpose than anything else. There were things dedicated as holy in the temple. That meant those items were used for only one thing—the service of the Lord. It was the idea of consecration. When something was dedicated to God for use in the temple, according to His instructions, it wasn’t sometimes taken out and used for other things. It was dedicated—set apart for just one purpose.
God is holy. There is no mixture in Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. By the blood of Jesus, we too are to be set apart—dedicated—for Him alone.
Hebrews 10:10 tells us,
“And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
The word for sanctified is that same word for holiness. It simply means “to be made holy” or “to be set apart.”
That means by the blood of Jesus, we have been set apart for God Himself.
Hebrews 9:11-14 says,
“He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Ephesians 5:25-27 says,
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
2 Timothy 2:20-21 says,
“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
We see the theme of holiness and sanctification throughout the Bible. In that last verse, we see the contrast between vessels of gold and silver and vessels of wood and clay. When we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, we are set apart as a vessel of honor. That’s about purpose!
We aren’t made to carry anything but the Holy Spirit. We were created to produce only that which the Word and Spirit produce in us after we’ve been washed in the blood of Jesus. We’ve been set apart for just one thing. We’ve been dedicated to Him.
This week, I encourage you, as I have, to take inventory of your fruit—the fruit of your thoughts, the fruit of your words, and the fruit of your actions. Are you producing life? Is the water flowing from your life the living waters Jesus promised, or salt water made bitter by the flesh? Are you producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit or the fruit of your flesh and efforts? Holiness isn’t just abstinence from sin, but an understanding of your purpose. You were washed in the blood of Jesus, set apart as special, consecrated, dedicated to God for just one thing. He saved you with a purpose! We are carriers of the Spirit of the Living God as we walk with Him, and there is nothing more precious than that!
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