holiness; a stab at a definition

1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal preisthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

So, what does it mean to be a "holy nation"? May not puzzle you much, but it did me and I had to spend sometime on it. In studying the word holy in both the Hebrew and the Greek, it literally means: to be set apart. Translating this further, in relation to God, it also means an absence of sin. Absence of sin means a lack of separation. Holiness is used in terms to mean: being set apart exclusively for the purpose of God. That word exclusive is often not mention. In so doing, the importance of it is lost.

Peter is calling the disciples (body of believers) to be Holy. That means, the expectation is that we, the body of believers, are to be (individually and corporately) set apart for the exclusive purpose of God. Does such a conclusion come out of left field? No. Check the use of the term holy throughout the Old Testament (TANAKH). Each time something is dedicated to God, set apart for his exclusive use, it is no longer considered to be "common" or "ordinary". It now has a very specific set of handling instructions, who may use it, when, where, etc. The specifics even went so far as to apply to the exact blend of certain spices for the purposes of creating a distinct aroma which would be on only certain objects that were considered most holy. So, how much more so are those holy whom he would have sent his son to die for?

Briefly, lets look also at what some of the other aspects of holiness would be: sinless and lack of distance. This is actually redundant when written this way because sin is any act which causes separation between us and God. Yet, sinless can also be referenced as "perfect". And, if we reach into Ephesians chapter 4, the word translated as both perfect and equipped is a medical term in Greek which actually is used to describe realigning of broken bones. So, when God gives "apostles, prophets, teacher, evangelists, and pastors for the equipping of the saints", that can equally be translated as perfecting of the saints and, if we apply the understanding of the term it would then be "the lining up perfectly with God of the saints."

In terms of holiness, then, we can substitute sinless above for perfectly aligned with.

Tackling the term lack of distance, in relation to holiness, we should read completeness. In other words, there is no distinguishing, because there is no distance. If we are perfectly aligned with God, we are then living in such a manner that we are now, as Jesus asks us to in John 17, one with him, he in us as we are in him and he is in the father and the father is in him, therefore the father is in us. Add to this the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and there ya' go: no distance between God and his children because of the work that Jesus perfected.

Holiness: being exclusively set aside for the purposes of God, perfectly aligned with him and having no separation nor distance.

Nation: a group of individuals sharing a common identity.

Holy Nation: a group of individuals who are set aside exclusively for the purposes of God in perfect alignment and having no separation from Him.

Come on Church, let's live it out.

Before any get too too upset, I'm not saying we can do this in our own strength. The inability of the law to perfect Israel is evidence of this. The law served as the indicator pointing in the direction of the Messiah/Savior. No, we cannot do this of our own. As Jesus himself says, for man this is impossible, but not with God. With God all things are possible. We are dependent upon his love, grace and Spirit to guide us, govern us and move us along. We have to surrender into this, allowing God to work in us and through us. Getting out of his way and allowing us to work that which is good in and through us.