In the World on Purpose

For a few centuries, we have been confused about what “holy” means. Most of the people who have anything to say about the subject are offering their version of what rules it means keeping.

What Yahweh means by the idea is “set apart.” The three parts of what it implies are 1) the item or person, which is 2) set apart (an action or event causes the change) and 3) what or whom it or they are “set apart” to. So, it could mean, as Paul mentioned purposes in 2 Timothy 2:20, that in a home, some pots are set apart to be chamber pots (night toilets), and some are cooking pots. Both are valuable. Don’t mix them up, though!

He has put us in the earth so that we will influence it, not so that we will spend our lives trying to avoid it. In the parable about the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30;36-43), Jesus said that the good seeds are the sons of the Kingdom. They have been sown into the world. An enemy has sown seeds into the world, too, and they won’t be removed just because they are wasting resources and pretending to be useful.

We are sent into the world to bear fruit. Being influenced by the world or the weeds is a mistake. Not influencing them is also a mistake. We need to be influences in every aspect of humanity.