What is Holiness?

Do we really understand what holiness entails? What does it actually mean "to be holy?" The Hebrew word for holy is "kodesh" - it means in its most basic sense - set apart. The holy things, the holy people, are set apart from the unholy things and people. This is why we see so much emphasis on God separating light from dark, wheat from tares, sheep from goats, wool from linen, the Sabbath from the other days. He places emphasis on the practice of literally setting things apart from other things so that His people learn how to differentiate the holy from the unholy.

There is so much emphasis today on emotion and feeling. Here's how the holiness of our Creator feels: so pure and bright that your eyes can't look upon His face, so incredibly pure that if you entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple, you would be struck dead by the purity and power of His presence, so powerful that when in His Son's presence, you cannot stand and are moved to fall at His feet.

So my question is - what about our lives points us to becoming more like that second paragraph? God tells us in Leviticus 11:44:

"For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy..."

and Peter reminds us again in 1 Peter 1:14-16: 

"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.""

From God's perspective (because His is all that matters), are the things we're doing, eating, refraining from, making us more holy? Or are they just giving us instant gratification? For instance, God tells us that pork is a "detestable meat" in both Isaiah 66:17 and Deuteronomy 14:3-8:

"Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens, Following one in the center, Who eat swine's flesh, detestable things and mice, Will come to an end altogether," declares the LORD." Isaiah 66:17

"You shall not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat. Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel and the rabbit and the shaphan, for though they chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. The pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses." Deuteronomy 14:3-8

...and that consuming it will make us unclean. Being unclean takes us further from holiness. Not closer to it. Every single thing we do, every. single. thing. matters. It either draws us closer to our Creator's holy presence, or it takes us away from His holy presence. Every choice we make matters. Every word we say matters. Every thing we eat matters. Every activity we do matters. Every refrain from activity matters.

This is my call to the church body - let's stop pretending that God is interested in our happiness. He's interested in our holiness. Can happiness still exist - absolutely. But He's not going to look upon us in the End and measure our joy. He's going to pass us under His iron rod and separate us based on our dedication to Him.