Question:
What is God like?
God is Holy! But what is holiness? What does it mean that God is holy?

Answer:
The term holy means separate from evil or another way to say that is sinless or pure. The prophet David (Dawud) tells us about the holiness of God in the words of the Psalms (Zabur) chapter 5 starting at verse 4. He said, "You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors." God is holy that means that he cannot tolerate evil. He cannot live with evil or have evil in his presence. If you allow me to use a much lower human example. Some children, friends of your kids are running around the neighborhood on a rainy day. They jump in the mud puddles and play in the mud so that they are covered from head to toe. Would you let all of them come into your house and onto the clean carpet and the nice furniture? I will tell you my mother certainly didn't let us run through her house like that either. Well God is pure, he is unstained by evil but we have done many things wrong. We have spent our lives getting dirty in big and little ways. The prophet David tells us that God will not allow the dirtiness of evil or sin into his presence. That means that we because of what we have done cannot be with God in paradise.

Of course if you really loved those neighborhood kids you may not let them in the house muddy and dirty. The house isn't for them in that condition. But because of your love you may find a way to clean them up so they can come inside to the warmth of your home. In the same way God is holy and will not let sinners (a sinner is every person who has done anything wrong in his life) into his presence. But because God loves us he has found a way to clean us and wash us so we can be with him. Find out more about God's way of cleaning us.