When I studied other religions in my search for truth, I found lots of ways a person could indulge carnal desires and still be in good standing with the religion. This intrigued me because, as a young man, I had active hormones. Later, as I studied to be a missionary, I again saw how these other religions often called for ritual purity, but did not mandate the deep moral purity that Christianity did. I wondered why—beyond the fact that God said, “Be holy because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44 and 1 Peter 1:16 NIV).
Why does God want us pure? The standard answer I got was: “Be holy because I am holy.” Okay, I thought, but is that all? If that’s as far as the reasoning goes, then God’s holiness is his own; it’s objective and separate from us. Our holiness is a reflection of his, an act of obedience and committed lifestyle.
I craved a reason that went deeper—a why—that would grip me, motivate me, and not let me go.
As I wrestled off and on with sexual temptations, anger, cussing, and bad thoughts (what’s on your short list of sins?), I felt deep conviction. I thought perhaps this was just guilt kicking in—childhood conditioning. Some said my upbringing bound me and prevented me from being psychologically healthy and pursuing every indulgence. On the occasions I took this libertarian advice, I felt like scum. The conviction was indeed deeper than childhood conditioning.
Was it simply God’s convicting me of sin? Yes, but it was more than conviction.
Was I convicted because I was acting contrary to my new nature in Christ? Yes, but it was more than just me.
Then I found the reason.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV), “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in your midst?” Later, when confronting sexual immorality, in 6:19–20 he says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” So whether as a body of believers or as individuals, we are to be holy because our physical bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Again in 2 Corinthians 6:16–17 Paul addresses unbelievers and covenant relationships, where he lays a foundational understanding from the Old Testament: “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’” God lives and walks with us—and in us. Therefore, he demands that we separate ourselves from anything unclean, every form of sin. Being in a covenantal relation with God means that we are his living, breathing temples.
All this ties back to God’s command to the Hebrew people in Leviticus 15:31: “You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place [or tabernacle], which is among them.” He called them to be set apart, and thus pure, because he lived among them.
God’s Spirit first made his home in the wilderness tabernacle, then in the Jerusalem temple. Then God incarnated himself among his people. Common translations of John 1:14 say Jesus “dwelt” or “made his dwelling” among us. But the Greek word skene literally says that Jesus “tabernacled” among us. He became a singular living, breathing tabernacle on two legs.
At Pentecost God’s Spirit was given to every believer so that we as his followers would in turn become living, breathing tabernacles.
As we live today, God chooses to live in us as his tabernacles or temples. This is why holiness is not merely an option for believers. It can never be optional. Being a follower of Christ means being his temple. And his Spirit is not pleased to dwell in a dirty temple.
In Matthew 5:28 Jesus says that if one looks lustfully at a woman, he has “already committed adultery with her in his heart” (and vice-versa for a woman). Besides being strict, this helps us understand that from the Spirit of God’s point of view, lustful thoughts, which so easily run rampant, can create a brothel of the mind. And in 5:22, anyone who is angry at another (especially without cause), will be “subject to judgment.” Again, besides being strict, this helps us understand that from the Spirit of God’s point of view, unrighteous anger makes the mind a threatening, hostile place. No wonder Jesus addresses sin at the level of just thinking about it.
No other religion—none—has a holy God whose Spirit actually lives inside his followers. Similarly, no other religion or holy book takes the problem and consequence of sin as seriously as the Bible because the Bible recognizes that sin is intractable and leads to eternal death. And no other belief finds an adequate solution as the Bible does—a life must be given. And Jesus gave his eternal self in our place so that we could receive eternal life through him. A religion of human invention or the invention of unholy spirits would not even address these issues. This is why other religions never have the same standard of purity that the Bible does. This is also why they essentially say that if people do what is prescribed (essentially some kind of work to earn favor), they will get the prize of paradise, nirvana, or whatever is sought. All very human.
The most fundamental reason to be holy
is that the Holy Spirit of God lives inside us.
For the theologically minded, this is at once both substantive (we’re the real estate; he’s the resident) and relational (he’s the lover of our souls).
And like everything else in Christ, we live and act by grace. Every day.
