Be Holy, for I am Holy

1 Peter 1:15-16
Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

What does it mean to "be holy?" God actually told to Israelites to "be holy, because I am holy" many times in the course of giving them His law.  I did a study of all of the times that God instructed people to "be holy" in the Old Testament and came up with the scriptures listed below. In each case, the verse was in the midst of specific commands; therefore, I have summarized the context along with the verse in the following list:

• Leviticus 11:43-45 - Be holy. Do not eat unclean meats.
• Leviticus 19:1-2 - Be holy. Honor your father and mother and observe my Sabbaths (various other laws follow, including restatements of some of the 10 commandments and "love your neighbor as yourself.")
• Leviticus 20:7-8 - Consecrate yourselves and be holy. Keep my decrees. I am the LORD, who makes you holy (continues to list various laws against sexual immorality.)
• Leviticus 20:25-26 - Do not eat unclean animals. Be holy, because I have set you apart.
• Leviticus 21:1-6 - Priests must be holy, or they will die. They cannot become unclean or defiled because they offer food to God. God makes them holy.

In a general sense, we can look at these scriptures and confidently assert that the Israelites had to keep the law in order to be holy, meaning the entire law with clean and unclean animals, the Sabbath and Holy Days, and all of the other decrees that God had given them. However, doing these things did not make them holy! God says that He consecrates them, He set them apart, and He makes them holy! A man can make himself unholy or unclean by breaking any of the laws, but God never told the Israelites that they would be holy by their own efforts.

In addition to the verses already referenced in 1 Peter 1, there are two other references in the New Testament to the idea of being holy:

Hebrews 12:14-17

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

Would the author of Hebrews tell us to "be holy" without giving us any instruction on how to do so? If no one can see God without holiness, then it's only logical that he was directing their attention to God's guidelines for holiness - the Law! When it says "see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God," that is a clear indication that we can fall short of receiving God's grace! Just as in the time of Israel, it is God that makes us holy, but it is our job to remain holy by keeping the law to the best of our ability.

Revelation 22:10-11
Then [the angel] told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”

It's overwhelmingly clear that we have to be holy if we want to be in God's Kingdom. Notice here that the person who is holy is coupled with the person who "does right" - holiness is NOT something that God gives you once and for all with no strings attached. You must follow God's law in order to receive His grace. Your works do not deserve it, but you have demonstrate your faithfulness to God by your works, and God has mercy on you because of your faith.