““But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’ “And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters on them.’””
1 Kings 9:6-9 NLT
We are to be holy because God is holy. Sometimes I think that we should make a distinction between our derived version of holy and God’s spirating holy. When God is holy, he is Holy. When man is holy he is partaking in the fact that God is Holy. The temple was built to show the presence of God on earth. In this way, it was holy. But here, God elucidates the fact that it is a derived holiness. It is not innate to the temple and its holiness is wholly dependent upon how much it adheres to the stringency of God’s. If it is impugned by the worship of idols or the influx of sin, it will not only lose its holiness but become a mockery. This is not unlike our humanity, which in some respect was the original temple in creation. It is therefore unsurprising that Christian’s, as the body of Christ, are considered a new temple. We should take this to mean how special our role is in facilitating a relationship with God and men. But we should also heed the warning found here. We must be holy for he is Holy.
JOSH McGARY. COM 