You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

Leviticus 20:26

As I’m sure you’ve notice by now, the site isn’t called The Christian Academic or The Discipled Academic or some other variation that indicates a Jesus-centered orientation. It’s called The Holy Academic and that wasn’t a stylistic choice. I felt it was inspired by the Holy Spirit through my recent reflections. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of holiness and God’s command to us to be holy as I read the “The Holiness Code” in Leviticus.

Now, I know that the commandment to “be holy” may dredge up lots of different feelings in you. It may be something that reminds you of intense legalism pushed upon you by well-meaning (or Pharisaical) people . It may simply be an impossible standard that incites all your insecurities and feelings of not being good enough for God. It may be something that you’ve dropped for cushy catch phrases like “relationship not religion,” which isn’t in the bible in case you were wondering (more on that in another post). I want to take some time to help you take a new perspective on holiness and encourage you to rethink your ideas about it by laying out what I believe it is and isn’t. I also want to relate it to what it means for you as an academic.

1. It’s About Being Set Apart

Lots of things can be holy. Utensils can be holy (1 Chronicles 9:29). Gatherings and celebrations can be holy. (Leviticus 23:37). Places can be holy (Exodus 3:5). Days can be holy (Exodus 20:11). So what does it mean to be holy? It means to be set apart or dedicated to the Lord for his purposes. We dedicate ourselves to lots of things: work, sports teams, exercise routines, work, shows, hobbies, family, and friends. (Did I mention work?) We manage to carve out pieces of ourselves for all of these, and yet, somehow, we say we can’t do the same for Jesus.

Particularly, in college and university spaces, it’s easy to dedicate yourself to the 10,000 things happening on campus in search of a better resumè, perceived productivity, or simply because of the pressure that culture put on you to be busy. The wonderful thing about practicing holiness is that when you set yourself apart to Jesus, it simplifies your life. When you commit yourself to living in the Lord’s purposes for your life, all of the extra things get cut out. Some of the things you were doing stay, but many of them go. It frees you to do the essential rather than the inconsequential.

2. It’s About Faith

You know why maintaining holiness feels so impossible? Because it is. Without Jesus, you and I can’t be holy. That’s why when we try apart from him, the command becomes a burden rather than a blessing. Yes! Commands are meant to be a blessing to us! Jesus gave us the ability to be holy through his sacrifice on the cross. Like many other things in Christianity, it’s something we first have to believe by faith before we can begin to live it out in practice.

3. It’s About Laying Down Bad Things (and Good Things!) for Better Things

Yes, holiness does involve your actions. You can’t be set apart for the Lord’s purposes, and then turn around and do your own thing. When reading through Leviticus 21 recently, which discusses holiness for Ancient Israel’s priesthood, I discovered that there are layers to holiness. God instituted standards that set the nation apart from those around them that applied to all the people (described in previous chapters), and then a higher one for priests (the tribe of Levi), and then an even higher one for the high priest (Aaron). Some of the restrictions put on the high priest were good things. For example, he wasn’t allowed to touch the dead, including his own parents. The other priests were allowed it in the case of close family members. It wasn’t that burying his parents was sinful, on the contrary, it would be a way of honoring them; however, his position required greater intimacy with the Lord, and thus, this good thing became not good for him.

It’s the same for each of you. As you endeavor to maintain holiness to the Lord on your campus, he might take you into new roles, and those new roles may require a different level of holiness from you in order to fulfill God’s purposes. Some good things that were fine for you to engage in before and that continue to be fine for your friends, may have to be laid down for a time or indefinitely. The bad things are still bad things you shouldn’t engage in, but you already knew that.

Finally, the best thing about being holy is that for everything you lay down, God gives you new, better things. I laid down my hopes and dreams to be a doctor, and God gave me a better (for me) dream that I never would have imagined. In fact, the life I’m living now as an academic is one I told him that I would never do. HINT: Don’t ever say never to God. You’ll find yourself in funny situations if you do. Those situations usually end with you eating your words. Still, that only came to be because I determined to be holy unto him. Perhaps, to find your place on campus, you need to focus to setting yourself apart for God. When you do, he’ll direct you into his purposes. God is looking for the willing. So let go and be holy!