Let's Go Back to the Bible

Be Ye Holy

How many of us have special dishes? The ones we get out when company comes over. Not the paper plates and red solo cups. I’m talking family heirloom, top shelf, the kids/husband aren’t allowed to wash them dishes. For some of us, it may not be dishes. It might be a coffee cup, or cups. Some item in the house that is set aside for special occasions. Set apart from the common household items of lesser monetary or emotional worth. Did you know that is what you are or can be to God?

Paul invoked this imagery when talking to Timothy about abstaining from the wickedness of the world. “Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Tim. 2:20-21). The keyword in this passage is sanctified—the process by which something that is common is made holy. Paul mentions this again to the Corinthian church. He makes a long list of sins that will not inherit the kingdom of God, then says, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). In both cases, we read that the way that one is to be sanctified, or made holy, is by washing. This is not a physical cleansing but a washing of our conscience and heart before God (1 Pet. 3:21). Which was made possible by the sacrifice of Christ, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10).

Being in God’s sanctified service is a special place of honor. Did you know that the sanctified objects in the service of the Lord in the temple of the Old Testament were so holy that only certain people could touch them? The ark was one of those objects. Only the Levites could carry it (1 Chr. 15:2). It was a holy object. It was for this reason that Uzza was struck down. He had touched a holy object (2 Sam. 6:7). We sometimes think that it may have been harsh for that to have been his punishment, but we don’t understand holiness.

We must not let ourselves become defiled by this world. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23). We are holy, set apart for a special service, in the eyes of God. We need to be useful in the service of God as His holy people (1 Pet. 2:9).