What do Christians mean by "holy"?
score:6
The progression in your list is actually somewhat (although not exactly) representative of the decreasing level of weight carried by the word.
Let's start with this: Only God is holy.
Holy means to be set apart, entirely-other. Untouched by any imperfection. Unmarred by any fault. God is the only one that matches these criteria. And boy is he Holy. The angels in heaven cry out in eternal accord that he is thrice holy. Holy. Holy. Holy.
After that things go down hill fast. Absolutely nothing else exists or ever will exist apart from God that is holy in the way that he is.
And yet there is one crazy exception: Those who through faith in Christ are adopted to be joint heirs with Christ and inherit his very holiness. Over and over through the Old and New testaments we see God calling his chosen people to "be holy, as I am holy." This is an absurd thing to ask of a degenerate created being -- except that he also makes us this way by covering us with his own holiness. At the cost of the life of His own holy son God provided a way to make un-holy people holy.
Some more interesting powerful uses of the word holy involve things like the temple (both the tent tabernacle and the permanent temple) where the sanctuary was holy because it was dedicated to a certain use, but the inner chamber was the _holy of holies because that is where Gods very presence would dwell.
Moving on down the line, the word has some common usages that only involve being set apart or dedicated for a certain use. Church buildings are only holy not in that they are physically sacred but that they are reserved for certain uses ... they are dedicated to the work of God through his body the church.
Cities such as Jerusalem can be considered holy in the sense that they play a special role or enjoy a unique identity or history.
Upvote:2
The Christian meaning is not different than the meaning in normal language use.
Simply it means Set apart for God hence:
1 Peter 2:9-10 (RSVCE)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.
Food for thought:
Under a ban
Joshua 6:17 (RSVCE)
17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
This last paragraph is purely a recent thinking of mine. People - what chutzpah - judge God by human standards and accuse God of wiping out peoples. My thinking is that those under the ban are also 'holy' in the sense that for the eventual salvation of all mankind, their lives were required to preserve the purity of religion. God will take care of them so long as they haven't other sins they are responsible for ...
1 Samuel 2:7 (RSVCE) 7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts.
The human being who brings others to sheol, cannot raise them up from it.
Upvote:2
Holiness, as it relates to God, is the ultimate "set apart":
- He is set apart from our flesh, since He is spirit, and thus is not motivated by the desires of the flesh that afflict us.
He is not of nationalistic spirit, since He was not born in any country, and is not beholden to any nation's laws or customs.
He is outside of creation and of time, so He is not bound by any of their laws.
Christians are called to be holy, to be "set apart" to God. So holiness in the case of persons is to be uncontrolled by their flesh, nationality, and other things that they may be controlled by the Spirit of God. You can see this in Philippians 3:4-6 as Paul lists the things he formerly valued that were of religion and nationality. The following verses show the contrast, that rather than knowing those things, he preferred to know Christ and His life. So holiness, or set apart, to Paul meant to literally set himself apart from the things he served that he may be unencumbered in his service to God alone. Without the literal setting apart, he would invite ongoing distractions into his work.
Upvote:6
I would affirm and add that "holy" is also important for understanding the vocation of God's people, not simply individual moral virtue. To be holy, as mentioned, means "to be set apart." God's purpose for Israel was to be set apart for upholding God's covenant - to ultimately be the agents of peace and healing for the rest of the world (Is. 49:6 - a type that is reworked in Mat. 5:14-16). This vocation, this calling to be the covenant-keepers that would allow God's justice to be administered, was of course impossible for Israel to keep (Rom. 3 attests to how the law itself testified to Israel's inability to keep it - a product of being 'in Adam'). Thus the necessity for a messiah, a christ, was needed to allow God's plan for whole-creation salvation to happen.
Upon Jesus' death and resurrection, he was vindicated as the true messiah, the one who had been obedient to the calling of Israel, thus enabling the covenant to be fulfilled and, indeed, to be the ultimate light-bearer to the world. The Christian, too, takes up this vocation, now transferred to all those who are "in Christ," meaning they are a part of God's family, the new "God's chosen people."
It remains the Christian's calling to be holy, even as God is holy (Mat. 5:48), not in order to be "better than" anyone else, but in order to be agents of God's grace and reconciliation as his rule and reign become more pervasive in the creation he is restoring. This has nothing to do with a superior attitude, as evidenced by the colloquialism "holier-than-thou"; rather it refers to something God is doing, God's intended use for a people he has called to bring about healing through.
An interesting use of this word is found in Paul's writings to the various churches - almost all of which he refers to as "saints" (the Greek word is 'hagios' - the same word used for "Holy Spirit" as well as "all the saints at Philippi). In contrast to the "holier-than-thou" religious types, these whom the New Testament writers referred to were sometimes (but not always) in serious theological and ethical error (the Corinthians and Galatians especially) and in need of stern correction.
Holiness, then, refers not to their actions, or even their attitudes, but to the unique calling God has placed on them to be the body of Christ, hands of healing pressed against the wounds of a bleeding world.
More post
- 📝 How is "every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" not contradictory to the "narrow is the way leading to life"?
- 📝 What is the basis of my fractured understanding of "Sola Scriptura"?
- 📝 is Adam no longer the son of God?
- 📝 How do Catholics understand Matthew 10:37?
- 📝 Scriptural basis of the "Notitia Assensus Fiducia" definition of faith?
- 📝 How do the Dead Sea Scrolls impact modern apologetics?
- 📝 Why did God the Father choose suffering for Christ and not the lucrative reigning power of an emperor of this world?
- 📝 How does spiritual maturity affect our hermeneutic (how we interpret the Bible)?
- 📝 Why most Christians say Jesus’ resurrection was on a Sunday?
- 📝 How do you obtain spiritual gifts? (Overview)
- 📝 What's the official Catholic position regarding the literal truth of incidents described in the Old Testament?
- 📝 Was the virgin conception of Jesus known to the people at the time?
- 📝 Are declarations of heresy limited to the denomination that made them?
- 📝 Are there any Christian denominations that assure equality with God?
- 📝 Why is the name Jehovah not used more in the Book of Mormon?
- 📝 Does the prophet Haggai imply that Zerubbabel could be the Messiah? (Haggai 2)
- 📝 Is the Sacrament of Confirmation really necessary to complete baptism?
- 📝 Did John Calvin teach that souls 'pre-existed'?
- 📝 How is the feet-washing ritual observed during Lent?
- 📝 Are any of the LDS gods without beginning or end, or are they all created at a certain point in time?
- 📝 Actual days taken from Maundy Thursday to Crucifixion
- 📝 How can things considered bad when done by humans become good when God does them?
- 📝 Is there a difference between theology and apologetics?
- 📝 What prophesies are people alluding to when they say "look at the Middle East"?
- 📝 Theology question: why hasn't God stopped Satan and his demons?
- 📝 What is the earliest example of the concept of Total Depravity?
- 📝 Why does God promise something that satisfies our greed for longevity?
- 📝 Is there a list of all the verses to "Were you there?"
- 📝 What is the significance of Daniel's Ch.10:4 vision date?
- 📝 Why were ousia and hypostasis synonymous in the Nicene Creed?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What do Christians mean by a "personal relationship" with Jesus?
- 📝 What does it mean to "worship God" to Christians in general?
- 📝 What do Christians mean by "holy"?
- 📝 What do Christians mean by "Jesus took our illnesses upon himself on the cross" and why?
- 📝 What do Orthodox Christians mean when they talk about the Real Presence in the Eucharist?
- 📝 What do charismatic Christians actually mean by the phrase "tonight is an open heaven"?
- 📝 What is the basis for saying Christians and Muslims worship the same God?
- 📝 What does it mean that Satan is "god of this world"?
- 📝 What did Jesus mean by "this generation will certainly not pass away.." in Matthew 24:34?
- 📝 What does it mean that Jesus fulfilled the law but did not abolish it?
- 📝 What does Jesus mean by saying, "Why do you call me good?"
- 📝 What have Christians taught during past plagues and pandemics?
- 📝 What exactly does it mean that Jesus Christ is the son of God?
- 📝 On what basis should Christians oppose child marriage?
- 📝 What did Jesus mean when he said ‘Go and sin no more’ if sinlessness is impossible?
- 📝 What does "scripture" mean in NT writing?
- 📝 What does it mean that Jesus was the "second Adam"?
- 📝 What does it mean to "Bless the LORD"?
- 📝 What does CS Lewis mean by True Myth?
- 📝 What is the source of hatred often perceived by Christians in western society?
- 📝 What does it mean to interpret the Bible literally?
- 📝 In Catholicism, what does it mean for a priest to bless an object or person?
- 📝 What does it mean to "be saved"
- 📝 What does Jesus mean by "this generation" and "all these things" in Mark 13:30
- 📝 What does Paul mean by "Love believes all things?"
- 📝 What does "gates of hell" mean in Matthew 16:18?
- 📝 What does it mean to comment on scripture with scripture?
- 📝 What does it mean to be "weak in faith"?
- 📝 On what basis do some denominations prohibit Christians from drinking alcohol?
- 📝 What does being lukewarm mean in contrast with being hot or cold for the church of Laodicea?