We continually pray, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Hosts,” and we repeat it constantly, so that our doctrine about the holiness of God may be established within us. Then we remember that we were created in His image and likeness. Therefore, you are the image of the Holy God.

You are the image of the Holy God.

God was alone in eternity, with His infinite holiness. Nothing existed except His holiness—no sin whatsoever. Then He began to create…

And through the process of creation, He brought forth free beings such as angels and humans, who by their own will could sin… And sin began with the fall of Satan, and with him fell other angels… then man fell… and thus sin entered the world. But from the beginning it was not so…

Satan was a holy angel when God created him—splendid in his beauty, perfect in his ways. And so was man.

How beautiful was the image in which man was created, in the image of God!

Adam and Eve, pure and simple, who knew no evil, who were naked and not ashamed, in wondrous holiness, like innocent children whom Christ loved and said about them, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

How beautiful was the universe when it was pure, containing nothing but holiness!

When God alone existed, and when the angels were before the fall…

And how beautiful was our original nature, as the image of God, His likeness and example.

God created us holy, and He wanted us to remain so:

Thus the Scripture says to us, “Be holy, for your Father who is in heaven is holy.” “Be perfect, just as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” Holiness—without doubt—is our original state, while sin is foreign to us.

And as children of God, we are supposed to be holy:

For the son resembles his father. Thus our teacher John the Apostle says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 2:29). He also says, “Whoever is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18).

We are supposed to be holy, as children of God. Also holy as temples of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

God cannot dwell in an unclean temple, for the house of God is holy: “Holiness befits Your house, O Lord.”

You are holy through the holy sacraments working within you:

Holy through the sacrament of Baptism which purified you from the old man and granted you a new birth. And holy through the anointing of the Holy Spirit which sanctified you in the sacrament of Chrism. And you are also sanctified through the sacrament of repentance which erases your sins, and through the sacrament of the Eucharist by which you abide in Christ, in which we pray, “Purify our spirits, our souls, and our bodies.”

Therefore we say in the Eucharist, “The holies for the holy”:

And therefore we call the liturgy in which they partake, “the Liturgy of the Saints.”

By holiness, the communicants prepare for communion, and by communion they are also sanctified. How beautiful is the phrase said by the prophet Samuel on the day he chose David as king: “Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice” (1 Samuel 16:4).

Also, the Passover sacrifice was eaten while they were pure:

Their doors were sprinkled with blood, a symbol of redemption. And they ate the Passover with unleavened bread, a symbol of purity. And leaven, which symbolizes evil, they removed from their houses for seven days, a symbol of the whole lifetime. And whoever ate leavened bread during those days was cut off from the congregation of God (Exodus 12:15, 19).

And when the people approached the mountain to hear the commandments of God, they approached in purity…

They approached in holiness. Moses had sanctified the people; they washed their clothes and remained ready for three days, and did not come near a woman (Exodus 19:14–15).

The place where God dwells is a holy place, because of God’s infinite holiness.

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He commanded him to remove his sandals, for the place where he stood was holy (Exodus 3:5).

Thus the Holy of Holies was called so because God dwelt in it…

The children of God are also holy because they are members of the Body of Christ.

It is not possible for a member of the Body of Christ to be unclean, as long as he is a member; therefore he must be holy. For what fellowship has light with darkness, or Christ with Belial…

Thus the term “believer” was synonymous with “saint” in the early Church:

The apostle says, “Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.” And it was said of the qualifications of a widow to be appointed that she “has washed the feet of the saints.”

Thus the Church was called holy because it comprises a group of saints:

We say in the Christian Creed, “We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” It is holy also by the blood of Christ which purified it from every sin, and holy because its membership is limited to the saints.

Therefore it was required that the camp be holy…

Because it is the dwelling of God with men… and therefore the sin offering, which carried the sins of the people, was burned outside the camp so as not to defile it…

Since the Church is a group of saints, every sinner whose presence does not agree with its holiness must be removed. Thus the Scripture said, “Put away the evil person from among yourselves.” And by this, the Apostle Paul commanded the Corinthians regarding the sinner found among them.

The early Church was strict in expelling sinners…

No person had the right to enter the Church except the saints. Saint John Chrysostom prevented the empress from entering the Church when he saw her as a sinner unworthy of entry.

And the Lord expelled Adam from Paradise when he sinned.

If sin separates man from the holiness of the Church, it separates him even more from God. Sin is truly separation from God…

For what fellowship has light with darkness? God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, while sin is darkness…

He who abides in God abides in holiness and in light… and he who commits sin separates from holiness and from light.

It is separation from God, here and also in the other world.

The heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling of God with men, is not inhabited by sin or sinners… It is the illuminated city which God Himself enlightens, and there is no darkness in it at all. Therefore it was rightly said of sinners that they are “cast into outer darkness” outside the dwelling of God with His saints…

We are supposed to be holy, but are we so?

No. We have lost the divine image and used our free will for sin, and we departed from God. So what did God do?

He is still trying to bring us back to a life of holiness again, through His angels, through His saints, through the apostles, the prophets, the shepherds, the priests, and the preachers… even through His Holy Spirit, His grace, and His work within us. He teaches us the ways of salvation and makes the path of godliness easy for us.

For the sake of the holiness that God desires for us, He gave us the sacrament of repentance.

Through repentance He sanctifies us, purifies us, and restores to us His image. He sprinkles us with hyssop and we are cleansed; He washes us and we become whiter than snow… How beautiful is the phrase “whiter than snow”… it gives us an idea of our divine image to which we should return, so that we may wear the wedding garment.

Repentance leads us to purity and then to holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. And behold, the apostle says to us:

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

It is impossible to combine God with a life of sin. You cannot serve two masters. Therefore the prophet says, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Either light or darkness…

By sin you drive God out of your heart. Therefore sin in this sense is betrayal of God, rebellion against Him, and incompatibility with His holy nature.

If man, as he grows in righteousness, sees sin as extremely ugly, how much more is the view of God, who is all-holy, toward sin?! God does not only want us to leave sin, but even more to hate it… to loathe it… and not let it compete with Him in our hearts.

If the love of God enters your heart, it will drive out the love of sin, just as light drives out darkness, and then you become holy.

When you say “Holy God,” you bow in reverence to God’s holiness, and you also bow in prostration, remembering your sinful life that is far from holiness. And when we pray the mournful “Agios” hymn on the day of someone’s departure from the world, we say to God within ourselves: You alone are holy; forgive this person and accept him to Yourself, for no one is without sin except You alone, the Holy One…

Whenever you chant and say “Holy, Holy, Holy,” lift your heart to God and say to Him: Grant me, O Lord, this holiness, by the work of Your Holy Spirit.

When Adam sinned, he was expelled from Paradise so that he would not eat from the Tree of Life while in sin. Therefore we must first be sanctified, so that we may be worthy to eat from the Tree of Life, and live in God and God lives in us: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

Therefore, if you love true life, and love eternity, and love the heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling of God with men; if you love the fellowship of angels, the fellowship of saints, and the fellowship of God Himself in that place… purify your hearts from every sin, and conduct the time of your sojourning in fear, in a manner worthy of the holiness to which you were called. And restore the image of God that you once had.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Forty), 7-10-1977

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