“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14, NIV).

In our culture today, holiness is a word that we hear very little and see in action even less. Sadly many people, including some Christians, don’t take God’s command to be holy seriously enough and non-Christians could care less about this vital character quality. As Christians, we should strive daily to display holiness in our speech, attitude and conduct (I Tim. 4:12). In Noah’s day, when God saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, He was grieved in His heart that He had made man (Gen. 6:5-6). How much more is God grieved by the evil in our world today?

What is holiness? Simply put, holiness is hating what God hates, loving what God loves and measuring everything by the standard of His Word. God often uses hardship, including sickness, to create in us a desire to be more holy. Through my fourteen-year battle with chronic illness, the Holy Spirit has exposed more of the sinfulness of my own heart and created in me a desire to be more holy like Christ.

In the book of Ruth, God used the hardship of Ruth’s husband’s death to create in her a hunger and thirst for Him. Ruth saw something in Naomi’s life that she wanted for herself and that was Naomi’s God. Ruth refused to go back to her people and her gods and she told Naomi, “Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:15-16). After deciding to return to Moab with her mother-in-law, God providentially brought Boaz into Ruth’s life and their baby, Obed, was in the lineage of Christ (Ruth 4:17).

What hardship are you facing today? I know many of us struggle daily with chronic illness and/or pain. We should ask God to use our hardship to produce holiness and Christ-likeness in us and to conform us more into Christ’s image (Rom. 8:29). Then, we can show the world the beauty of holiness, without which no man (or woman) will see the Lord.