A holy person is not someone who claims themselves to be holy. It is not a person that holds a position in some religious order or religion. You are not holy because you are recognized as being a priest or one who guides in spiritual matters, nor are you a holy person because you have powers in spiritual paranormal abilities.
Holiness is being in a state of sinlessness, being without sin. For one to be a holy person this would require being sinless.
All people are sinful by nature. The Bible says in Romans 3:23, ". . For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We by nature will fail and do wrong. To be holy would require a person to eliminate all sin from their being. Since no one is capable of doing this, we need help.
Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us." This is our help. Jesus provides a way that we can be made sinless in the eyes of God. By accepting the death sacrifice God made through his son Jesus Christ, you are made sinless.
Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Accepting Jesus as savior and believing that God raised him from the dead starts you in a life attitude that sin is no longer in control over you.
Romans 6:6, ". . .knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, and that the Body of sin might be done away with, that we should long longer be slaves of sin."
Human beings are not capable of being sinless but we are capable of having a sinless attitude and behavior. We can live in such a way we desire to be sinless, thus living each day with less and less sin, having control of what we do.
In Colossians 2:6 Paul wrote, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."
Jesus is called "that holy thing" in Luke 1:35, making him holy.
God said he was holy in Leviticus 11:44-45.
We are called to be holy in 1st Peter 1:16 as Peter quotes from Leviticus 11 that we are to be holy because God is holy.
The Scripture Encourages Holiness
Colossians 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Ephesians 1:4 According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. . .
Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Holy in these verses is the Greek word hagios (hag'-ee-os) αγιος. This is an adjective that means sacred, physically pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially consecrated.
To be holy is a character trait of God. Holiness is the purest of all Godly attributes.
A more proper definition of holy means to be different (unlike), in a way that is "likeness of nature with the Lord," because you are "different from the world." This fundamental meaning of holy is shown in the temples of the 1st century, which were "holy" because they were different from other buildings. What made them different was the fact that they were "like the Lord wanted." It was set apart and therefore "different (distinguished/distinct)" because it was special to the Lord.
The same is true with people who have been set apart/sanctified in Jesus Christ.
We are specially called to be like Christ as we are made into his image.
We are made holy/different, as we are made into his image (Romans 8:29-30).
Holiness is an Attitude We take Toward Sin
If you are being holy you choose to not do things God considers as sin.
You learn what is right in God's sight and what is wrong.
You will clean up your speaking and use words that are honorable, moral, and respectful to all people and to God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
You will have an attitude that wrong is wrong and you will choose to not do it.
Living a holy life requires a commitment that you will grow better at being like God in all your life experiences.
A disrespectful pastor is not a person that is living holy. When pastors and ministers are hateful, mean, disrespectful, obnoxious, and rude, they do not understand what it means to live a holy life. Too often people in ministry think they can live the way they want because they are the leadership in churches. This attitude and mindset is just not true. When ministry becomes ugly and insulting, pushing people away instead of pulling people toward Christ and the church, these type people are not living holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service (Romans 21:1).
As a Christian, a true Christian, you are quite a contrast.
Anchored in Jesus Christ, you are immovable, steadfast, and strong.
Your eyes are fixed on the Word of God, a beacon that stands out like a "lamp shining in a dark place" (2Peter 1:19).
As you move toward that light, God changes your life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The message you proclaim and the life you live guarantees you will stand out in the culture.
Holy, righteous lives are the backbone of the gospel we preach. The apostle Paul understood that. In the midst of a pagan society that did all it could to persecute Christians and discredit the Christian faith, he wrote to Titus telling him how to instruct the Cretans "to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:12).
Holiness Shows We have Salvation
Human nature is so opposite from that of God, and the regeneration we gain from salvation through Jesus Christ is so extreme when compared to the human makeup, in our own, we have no way to be convinced that we are saved once we accept Jesus as our savior.
We know calling upon Jesus in faith, confessing our sins to him, and accepting his sacrifice on the cross is the human action we do for salvation. By this we trust in faith that we are now saved (Romans 10:9,10,13).
We know our spirit is regenerated and made new and we are made a new creature and that our old person is passed away, while our new person emerges (2 Corinthians 5:17).
With all this going on we must have something to help us see we are saved.
Holiness coming up and out of us, which is God's character, confirms to us that we have been changed.
We know what we were like before salvation; unable to do right, unable to be pure in our thoughts and deeds, and unable to sustain godly character.
But now we see holy character emerging out of our being.
We see there is a source within us that helps us to actually be like God.
The Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) starts pouring out of our being and we have assurances that "Yes, I am saved and I am becoming like my Lord!"
Besides our own confidence, we must have a way to prove to others salvation is in us. Being able to live more pure, more truthful, more morally good, helps other people to see salvation is real in us.
We have been commanded to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) of Jesus Christ.
Our testimony should be attractive in some way so people will want to accept Jesus also.
In 1st Peter 2:11-12 we are admonished to live so that people will see you obstaining from the flesh. Peter started his encouragement to live holy in Chapter 1:13-15, because Jesus who is holy and God who is holy wishes for this in our lives (Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7).
To convince a man God can save, I need to show him a man He saved.
To convince a man that God can give hope, I need to show him a man with hope.
To convince a man that God can give peace, joy, and love, I need to show him a man
with peace, joy, and love.
To convince a man that God can give complete, total, and utter satisfaction,
I need to show him a satisfied man.
When the world sees people who are holy, righteous, peaceful, joyful, and fulfilled, they see the evidence of God's transforming power.
From <http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A300/the-power-of-a-holy-life>
Holiness Begins in Your Thoughts
What you think determines how you talk, what you want, where you will go, and what you will do.
How a person thinks, so they are (Proverbs 23:7). You must deal with sin on the level of thought.
This is why you should take care of wicked thoughts as you have them. Confess them to God right then and replace it with thoughts of God and his Word. If you think envy toward someone, judge it, confess it and ask God to fill your heart with love for them. If you lust after someone, immediately flee from those thoughts in your mind and it will help you keep from it physically. This is why Paul said to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2nd Corinthians 10:5).
People who try to live a fake holiness will eventually be faced with their own sin because the thoughts of your heart are going to show up somewhere.
It is in cultivating a holy thinking you will continue to walk in holiness.
When Peter stresses to "gird up the loins of your mind" (1st Peter 1:13) he is admonishing us to pull up our minds to "be sober" or alert.
Our spiritual alertness starts in the thoughts we allow ourselves to exist in. How much we put our efforts toward spiritual alertness determines our ability to overcome evil and wickedness, as we allow the attributes of Jesus to emerge from our inter being, and we are being holy.