Archive for the 'Bible Studies for Life' Category
The Holiness of God
Though often forgotten today, the Bible does not forget the holiness of God. In the King James Version, holiness is referenced more than 400 times in the Old Testament and another 181 times in the New Testament. Some of these references are to God Himself, others to humans, and yet others to items separated to God (such as items in the temple). It remains that anything holy finds its root in the nature and character of God.
The ninety-ninth psalm reveals something of the holiness and majesty of God. “The LORD reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth quake. Yahweh is great is Zion; He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awe-inspiring name. He is holy.”1
Holiness: God’s standard
The holiness of God remains the standard against which our character is measured and toward which our character is aimed. We are reminded in the Old and New Testaments to be holy because God is holy.2 In the Summer 2014 unit of Bible Studies for Life, Freddy Cardoza reminds us how different cultures have a tendency to remake God in a different image not His own. Cardoza writes, “Every culture has some religious element, but each culture makes God in its own image. That god tends not to be too different from the people who worship it; there is nothing unique about their god. We desperately need a God who is beyond us; we need a God who is beyond our ability to fully explain or understand Him. That God has revealed Himself. He is holy – completely separate from His creation – yet He calls us to know Him and walk with Him.”3
To worship the one true God, the God who has revealed Himself in creation and in His Word, we must recognized God works within His creation, but is beyond it. God is not one with His creation; He is Lord and controller over it. This “separateness” is one of the facets of His holiness. Another facet, one with which we are most familiar, is the avoidance of all that is evil.
What does holiness look like for us?
While we cannot be separate from all of creation like God is, we can avoid evil. Our “being holy as He is holy” does not mean we try to leave the solar system or refuse to engage God’s created order. It does mean that we avoid evil. This is our separation.
Holiness also implies we are separate from the fallen systems of this world. We stand against exploitation, injustice, and unrighteousness because God’s character stands apart from all of these things. We cannot claim to be holy if our lives do not look different than those who do not know God. Being holy will make us look as different from those who do not know God as God does from the idols that replace him. It is for this reason, perhaps, we are commanded to “pursue peace with everyone and holiness–without it no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, HCSB).
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
1– Psalm 99:1-3, HCSB
2– Leviticus 20:7, 1 Peter 1:15, 16
3– Bible Studies for Life, Beyond Belief, Freddy Cardoza
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Sharing Hope
Imagine being in the midst of a horrible famine. There are more hungry people than there is food to feed them. Babies and children with horribly distended bellies, parents unable to provide them with even the smallest meal.
Now imagine stumbling on an unimagined treasure: an enormous warehouse filled from side-to-side, top-to-bottom, with all the food needed to alleviate the famine and return its victims to health and vitality. All you would need to do is start sharing the news and point the way to the warehouse. You have a hope that could touch every single person.
A Legacy of Hope
The Bible records a very similar story in 2 Kings 7:3-9. Assyria had laid siege to Israel to such a degree, some within the cut-off city had turned to cannibalism to survive. It was an extreme time.
During this time there were, sitting at the city gate, lepers who are not allowed entrance due to their condition. Because of the severity of the famine, they decided to walk over to the Assyrian camp to look for food. Their reasoning was simple: we might as well try; if we stay here we will starve.
Totally unknown to them, God had scared off the army in the middle of the night. The lepers found an abandoned campsite with mounds of food and supplies. As they considered their unexpected blessing one said, “We should not keep this good news to ourselves. We should tell our people that they might be fed.” This is just what they did and the city was saved.
What if these lepers had refused or neglected to share the hope they had found? How would history have remembered them? Selfish. Careless. Unloving. All these would have been their legacy.
A Greater Treasure
God has entrusted us with a treasure far greater than food. He has entrusted us with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Physical hunger and famine are critically important, but spiritual deadness condemns people for both time and eternity.
How are we sharing this hope? Like these lepers, our sharing has to consist of more than words. Sharing hope is so much more than telling information. Hope is demonstrating through our lives how the gospel has changed us. As Pete Wilson says in Bible Studies for Life, “When it comes to sharing our faith with others, the minds of many turn to the idea of learning a set gospel presentation. In our culture, though, people don’t want to just hear the truth; they want to see it. We should certainly talk about the hope we have in Christ, but we must support what we say by living it out and showing hope to others.”1
But, isn’t this what people should expect? If we claim to have a message from the King of Kings, should the truth of that message not be reflected in our lives? If not, what kind of message do we have, anyway?
Let us both proclaim the hope that we have and live in such a way that makes that hope obvious.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.