Sermon Synopsis
This sermon explores the biblical call to holiness as an identity rooted in God’s character and grounded in grace. While holiness is an unattainable standard on our own, Scripture reveals that believers are already made holy through Christ and called to live this identity out daily. The message emphasizes that holiness touches every area of life, especially when it is costly or unseen. Ultimately, believers are invited to pursue holiness together as God’s redeemed community, empowered by grace rather than driven by fear.
Please note: This transcript is provided as close to verbatim record of the sermon.
A Call to Holiness
Living as God’s Holy Community
Opening Prayer
Let me open us in a word of prayer.
Dear God, we thank You for this time together. We thank You, Lord, for the retreat so far—for the topics we have considered on leadership, submission, and community. And now, we thank You for the opportunity to consider this topic of holiness. We know that holiness is a big word. It is a word we often use to describe You, but not so easily ourselves. Father, we pray that You would help us to reflect deeply on this important question: how do we live holy lives in view of our calling as Your children?
So we commit this session to You. As we open Your Word, may You speak to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Introduction: An Uncomfortable Kind of Feedback
This session focuses on the call to holiness. Yesterday afternoon, we spent time discussing the call to community. It feels timely now to ask the next question: how then do we live as a holy community of God’s people?
Let me begin with an illustration. It’s now October, and for many of us, the end of the work year is approaching. That also means something many of us are familiar with—performance appraisal or performance review.
Some feedback is quite manageable:
“You need to be faster.”
“You need to be more careful.”
“You need to be more articulate.”
These are things we can work on. We can train ourselves to be faster, more careful, or more vocal.
But what about feedback that is more intrinsic—harder to change?
“I need you to be smarter.”
“I need you to be more sensitive.”
“I need you to be sharper.”
That’s trickier. How do you even respond to feedback like that?
Now think about this feedback from God:
“Be holy.”
What if, based on a spiritual report card, God says to us, “Be more holy”? How do we even respond to that?
Yet this is exactly what Scripture says. In 1 Peter 1:16, we read:
“Be holy, because I am holy.”
So what does this mean?
What Comes to Mind When We Hear “Holiness”?
When we hear the word holiness, many things come to mind. Some of us think of purity. Others think of being set apart for God. These are common and helpful answers.
But Scripture invites us to think more deeply.
Let’s look more closely at the passage itself. In 1 Peter 1:15–16, it says:
“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.’”
This instruction is actually quite frightening. We are not told to be holy only on Sundays, or only when people are watching, or only in public spaces. We are called to be holy in all we do—every day, every action.
And elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus intensifies this call. In Matthew 5, He tells us that sin is not only about what we do, but even about what we think—lust, anger, motives of the heart.
So the call to holiness goes far deeper than outward behavior.
Why Must We Be Holy?
Why does God call us to holiness?
The answer is right there in the passage:
We are to be holy because God Himself is holy.
Notice the structure of 1 Peter 1:15–16. It begins with God’s identity and ends with God’s identity. It’s almost like a sandwich—or maybe a donut, with God’s holiness surrounding everything in the middle.
This call did not begin in the New Testament. In Leviticus 19:2, God says to Moses:
“Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’”
And in Leviticus 20:26:
“You are to be holy to Me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.”
Between these verses are many commands—about honoring parents, worship, offerings, honesty, generosity, relationships, even how they harvested their crops.
The point is this: holiness touches every dimension of life.
Holiness is not just about worship practices or religious rituals. It affects how we relate to parents, how we treat the poor, how we speak to one another, how we handle our work, and how we live in community.
God’s people were called to be holy in all they did because they belonged to Him.
Our Identity as God’s Children
Returning to 1 Peter 1, we see something very important in verse 14:
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
The call to holiness is grounded in identity. God is not calling random people to be holy. He is calling His children.
As obedient children, we are no longer to live according to our former ways. We now bear a resemblance to our Father. Just as children often resemble their parents, we too are called to reflect God’s character—His holiness.
Holiness is the essence of God’s character, and by inheritance, it becomes part of our calling as His children.
Encountering the Holiness of God
To understand holiness more deeply, we must look at God Himself.
There are only two places in Scripture where we hear the phrase “holy, holy, holy”:
In Revelation 4, we see the heavenly throne room—four living creatures and twenty-four elders worshipping God.
But Isaiah 6 gives us something additional: the response of a human being in the presence of God’s holiness.
Isaiah cries out:
“Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
In the presence of a holy God, Isaiah becomes acutely aware of his own unworthiness. He cannot stand on his own merit.
And neither can we.
Like Isaiah, when we truly see God’s holiness, all we see in ourselves is brokenness and sin. None of us would make the cut.
But the story does not end there. Isaiah is cleansed. His guilt is taken away.
And for us today, we know that it is Jesus who has paid the price for our sins, making us holy and able to stand before God.
Holiness by Grace
This brings us to a crucial truth: our holiness is rooted in grace.
Colossians 1:12–14 says:
“Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Notice this carefully:
We are already called His holy people.
Holiness is not primarily about what we do to qualify ourselves. It is about what God has already done for us in Christ.
Yet, this does not mean we slack off. Though we are positionally holy, we are still called to work out our holiness daily.
Living Holy Lives in a Secular World
Holiness is difficult—especially when it is inconvenient, costly, or unpopular.
Let me share a personal example.
Earlier this week at work, my team was preparing a presentation deck for the DPM. We discovered a serious error in a company’s financial figures after the deck had already been approved and circulated. Correcting it meant embarrassment, delay, and a scolding from management.
It was tempting to let it slide. Nobody else would notice.
But one team lead insisted we correct it. She took the hit on our behalf, and we fixed the error.
Later that day, I found out she was also a Christian.
Holiness often looks like doing the right thing when no one is watching. It is not easy. It costs something.
Holiness as Allegiance
Holiness is not just a standard—it is an identity.
To say we are holy means we are set apart by God’s grace for God’s purposes. Our allegiance is no longer to our own success or comfort, but to God’s kingdom.
This plays out in everyday life:
God cares not only about big moments, but about small, daily acts of faithfulness.
Grace for When We Fall Short
We will fail. All of us will stumble.
That is why holiness can never be separated from grace.
As Paul Tripp writes:
Because of His grace, we can know who this holy God is.
Because of His grace, we are accepted, not rejected.
Because of His grace, we run to God for help, not away in fear.
Because of His grace, God appointed His perfect Son to be the perfect sacrifice for imperfect people.
Because of His grace at work within us, we experience both conviction of sin and a desire to live holy lives.
God reveals His holiness not to drive us away in terror, but to invite us to come near.
Conclusion: Holiness as Our Shared Journey
Holiness is not just for leaders or those serving in church. It is for all of us—as God’s community.
We are already made perfect and fully qualified in Christ. Yet we continue to strive for holiness because it reflects who we are as God’s children.
As we leave this session, may we not aim to be holy simply for the sake of it, but because we are looking to Jesus. May we fight to live holy lives—not alone, but together—spurring one another on as God’s people.
Closing Prayer
Dear God, we thank You for this time in Your Word. We thank You that through Your Son, Jesus Christ, You have qualified us to share in the inheritance of Your holy people. Help us not to feel unworthy or distant from You, but to remember that we are already made right in Christ. May we continue to journey together as Your community, striving to reflect Your holiness to the world.
We thank You and commit ourselves to You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.