What is holiness about?

The word holiness sounds ancient and prudish in our culture, it's not a popular word. That's unfortunate because many people now fail to understand what holiness even is. Striving for holiness is more about maintaining relationship with God than about achieving moral purity. 

Proverbs 28:9 says that "If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable." It's like saying don't bother praying, don't bother coming to God if we don't care about holiness. This is devastating to those of us who know and enjoy friendship with God. Imagine our spouse or best friend or parent or any other important person saying to us that our words are detestable, it would be a thousand times worse coming from God. Because He knows us deeper than anyone, loves us more than anyone and has sacrificed for us more than anyone, His rejection is the most devastating of all.  

This is where I come to understand King David's heart when he wrote in Psalm 63:3 '...your love is better than life...'.