Holy is not a favored word. Not in the culture! Not even in the church! Piety has spoiled it! Legalism has tainted it! Emotionalism has detoured it! Yet God took over 400 years of Israel’s history to teach them what “holy” meant. It is living a relationship of loving God with your whole being free of competing idols. It means to live your life “set apart” to and for the purposes of God. It is a radical belonging to God for His mission to the world.
“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ–their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:2-3 (NIV).
