11 Bible Verses about Holiness, Worldly Separation
Most Relevant Verses
And he called all the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, everyone, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him." (...)read more.
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. So he said to them, "Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, since it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
crying out, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place; and besides he also brought Greeks into the temple, and he has defiled this holy place."
Anyone who has rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think a man will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as an unclean thing the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's full knowledge he kept back some of the money for himself, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?read more.
While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him. After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price." And she said, "Yes, that was the price." Then Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out." Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against your soul.
I have given them your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Nevertheless, God's firm foundation stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."
Religion that is pure and undefiled in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
