Well, today's question comes to us from a listener named Andrew, Pastor John, hello.

I was wondering if you can explain the difference between God's holiness and God's righteousness.

And how does that apply to us?

What does it mean that we are supposed to be holy and righteous?

What is the difference for us?

If we start at the bottom, that is where we live, I would say that the kind of behavior

that would be called holy and the kind of behavior that would be called righteous are in fact

the same behavior, but viewed from different angles.

In other words, I don't think it's ever the case that we would do something that would

be called righteous, but would be unholy, or that we would ever do something called holy

that would be unrighteous.

So when it comes to the actual deeds and attributes, all holy behavior will be righteous behavior,

and all righteous behavior will be holy behavior, that's the first thing.

That doesn't mean that the words are identical in meaning.

So what's the basic difference?

The essential idea behind the concept of holiness is being separated from, distinct from that

which is ordinary or common.

So in its initial usage, it could refer to something bad or good.

There might be a temple prostitute who's holy because she's not an ordinary prostitute.

But in the Bible, that's not the way the word holy is used.

Holiness has taken on a moral meaning that derives from God's holiness, in other words,

God is separated from all that is not God and is in a class absolutely by himself, which

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