ON BEING HOLY. "Be ye holy, for I am holy." -- 1 Peter 1:16. THIS precept enjoins holiness, and our first business should therefore be to inquire what holiness is. It is plain that the Bible uses the term as synonymous with moral purity; but the question will still return, What is moral purity? I answer, moral fitness; that which we see to be morally appropriate. It is, in substance, moral propriety; in other words perfect love; such as God requires. It is sympathy with God and likeness to him; the state of mind that God has. Holiness in God is not a part of his nature in such a sense that it is not voluntary in him, but it is a voluntary exercise and state of his mind. The same is true of all beings. Holiness is not a thing of nature as opposed to free action, but must always be a free and a moral thing. It is not possible to any beings but such as are made in the image of God in the sense of being moral agents. They must have free-will, and then must voluntarily conform themselves to rectitude. Nothing less or other than a voluntary conformity of themselves to the moral law can be holiness. In them all, holiness is that state of mind which is precisely appropriate to their nature and relations. This state is expressed in one word -- love, meaning by this, benevolence -- good-will to all. When this term is used in its widest sense, it includes all moral duty. Hence this command to be holy requires that we bring ourselves into a moral adjustment to God and our entire moral duty. http://www.charlesfinney.com/finney/finney.php?op=324 Way of Salvation Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz6F_LCtt-2LaE96OHFOOHhxWkE .
