August 9, 2024

Haggai 2.12, 13 (NIV)

“If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?” The priests answered, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?” “Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”  

It is impossible for God's holiness . . . to pass from us to the world. . . . The world will contaminate your holiness, if you are not on guard against it.*

God’s people had returned to the Promised Land after their exile in Babylon. After 20 years, they were still occupied with rebuilding and reestablishing a society but they seemed to have forgotten the point of returning.* After a token attempt at restoring the temple, they were content to let God’s house lay in ruins – a constant reminder that proximity to holiness is not holiness.

We can see from Haggai’s illustrations that impurity does not have to be proactive in order to spread. Holiness, on the other hand, must make an effort to be passed on. Going to church and hanging out with the “right” people will not make us holy, but going to bars and socializing with unsavory characters deadens our sensitivity to sin until we no longer stand out from the crowd. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t pass my holiness on to someone else.

 

Here are some practical suggestions and helpful reminders for maintaining your purity:

• “The enemy will tempt you in the way you are most susceptible. . . Guard your vulnerable areas with prayer.”
• “We . . . have to separate ourselves from anything that separates us from Him.”
• “Rebuke the enemy with God’s Word.”
• “Don’t ever think you are immune to temptation.”*

If the priorities of our heart are wrong, nothing we do is really holy to God.*