Cultural Holiness

Last night, we talked about the idea of "cultural holiness." This is the idea that our idea of holiness is based on others.

In a nutshell, the idea is that we determine that "holiness" is based on what we see in others. We look at the Christians we know and take note of how they behave, the things they say, and what they watch. Then based on what we see in other believers, we determine what's good for us (in regards to holiness).

That's no good. We can't look to others for our standard of holiness. Our standard comes from the Creator himself. "Be Holy, because I am Holy." Those are the words that God spoke to the children of Israel.

But why don't we look to God for our standard? Why do we look on earth for our standards? For one, I think it's easier. It's a lot easier to use standards man creates. Also, we just often don't think about God's standards. How many times are you thinking about what God would want from us in a particular area?