The Reason God Says You Should Be Holy

The reason God tells us to be holy is this: so that we may connect to the unlimited possibilities, or better put, characteristics of Himself that inherently lie within us, as we are made in His image. These divine attributes are often shadowed by our fundamental aspect of being: limitation. It is this limitation that makes it almost impossible, on a human level, for these attributes to be manifested on a consistent basis to the degree that we would very much want.

Thus, the phrase “Be ye holy” is an instruction to strive, as much as possible, to connect with the Divine on a level that allows us to access these divine attributes, which in truth are a sea of unlimited possibilities, even if only for a short period. Consider the case of Peter, who, when he encountered Christ, suddenly possessed the ability to walk on water. Inherently, it is impossible for man to do this, as the law of physics makes such an effort impossible. However, with the entrance of Christ, Peter was able to walk on water because he connected with the unlimited power that exists within the Divine and is obtainable to us through a relationship with Him.

As soon as Peter became self-aware of his apparent holiness — the precondition for performing such a miracle or any miracle, for that matter — he lost the ability to continue walking on water.

Consequently, we can deduce from that instance that self-consciousness is the very antithesis of holiness.