Holy People

Now, therefore, if you obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is Mine but you shall be for Me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6 NRSVue).

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own chosen people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9 NRSVue).

I like easy solutions. I could have written a laundry-list of biblical persons who were considered קָדוֹשׁ (kadosh – Hebrew for holy) or ἅγιος (hagios – Greek for holy), but lists make for dull reading, so I’ll spare you that. For now, anyway.

There’s a name for holy people, you know. In the Old Testament, they are called prophets. In the New Testament, they are called saints. And there were specific requirements for both those callings. 

In the Old Testament, the word “prophet” simply means “one who speaks for another.” The prophet’s job was to communicate God’s message to the people. Prophets were chosen by God himself. The prophet should also live a life that befits an ambassador or spokesman of the Divine. A prophet should declare God’s truth, call for obedience, and warn against sin and idolatry. Moses was the first, and arguably the greatest, Old Testament prophet. “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10). 

In the New Testament, a “saint” was simply a follower of Christ. The word was used by both Peter and Paul in their writings to include all the growing body of believers in the early church. As time went on, certain traditions reserved “sainthood” for martyred believers, elevating them and affording them special reverence and veneration not accorded to the general body of believers.

Holy dilemma, Batman! Is there some sort of Orwellian maxim at work here? All prophets are holy, but are some prophets more holy than other prophets? All saints are holy, but are some saints more holy than other saints? 

No. We all, that is the body of believers, are called to be holy. We are to be in this world, but not of this world. “Set your minds on above, not on things on earth” (Colossians 3:2), or set your minds apart from things on earth. And that is hard. The world intrudes, insinuates itself, on us every day, 24/7, 365, with no time off for good behavior. “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” Jesus prayed for his disciples and for us (John 17:14-15). 

A holy life requires us to be separate from the world. But it does not mean that we isolate ourselves from the world. Far from it. Christ calls us to be both his “saints” (believers in Him) and his “prophets” (those who speak for another); “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). 

We are to be holy saints and holy prophets. We are to be a holy people.

Rejoice always,

Jerry Lipscomb