But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”– 1 Peter 1:15-16

As Christians, we take holiness pretty seriously — as we should. To be holy means to be set apart. This includes abstaining from sinful actions and thought patterns, which is how most people think about holiness, but it goes much deeper than this. To be holy means that our whole lives are set apart for service to God.

Sadly, I think that all too often the Christian church has confused being set apart for and to God with being set apart from. We have turned holiness into nothing more than a statement of everything that we are against. We have used the concept of holiness to isolate ourselves from anyone whom we deem does not have an acceptable lifestyle or who does not ascribe to our beliefs. At times we have gone so far as to push these people away with hateful speech and exclusionary practices.

But I don’t think this is what God had in mind when he called us to be holy. Jesus was the perfect example of holiness. He was perfectly set apart to God. Yet he was never set apart from people — even people whose lifestyles and practices were questioned by the religious community. He ate in the homes of sinners. He befriended adulterous women and prostitutes. He took a lot of flack for refusing to set himself apart from these people. That’s what the religious leaders of his day did and what they expected him to do as well.

Interestingly enough, when we find Jesus being critical of people in the scriptures, it’s very rarely those with the questionable reputations, but rather the religious authorities who thought themselves so holy, so set apart, that they had little compassion for others. If we are honest, I wonder how often we are guilty of the same. We put ourselves on a pedestal, congratulating ourselves for all of the things that we have successfully abstained from while forgetting Jesus’ most important commandment.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27) Notice Jesus makes no remarks about our neighbors needing to share our same beliefs or lifestyle in order to be worthy of our love.

This leads me to conclude that the best way that we can live lives of holiness is not by merely abstaining from certain practices or setting ourselves apart from others. Instead, we need to be so set apart to God that we are able to love others, even the “unholiest” among us, with the type of radical and extravagant love that Jesus has given to us. We need to do this with a spirit of compassion and humility. When we do, perhaps then we will have a taste of what God called us to when he called us to holiness.