In Haggai chapter 2:10-19there is a message about holiness and sin. Whenever any prophet spoke about building God's house, the very next thing he spoke about always was holiness. You cannot build the house of God, if you do not emphasise holiness. This is the mistake that numerous preachers and pastors are making today.

The Lord says, "Ask the priests this question about the law: 'If one of you is carrying a holy sacrifice in his robes and happens to brush against some other food, will that also become holy?' The priests replied, 'No.' Then Haggai asked, 'But if someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then brushes against any food, will it be defiled?' And the priests answered, 'Yes.'" (Haggai 2:11-13).

The message here is just this: Holiness cannot be transmitted from one to another, but sin can.

A more modern illustration will perhaps help us understand this better. In a hospital's operating theater, the equipment is all sterilized and free from germs. If you take one of those sterilized knives and touch a dirty cloth with it, will that cloth become sterilized and free from germs? No. On the other hand, if you reverse the process and take the dirty cloth and touch that sterile knife with it, that knife will immediately become infected with the germs on the cloth.

So what do we learn from this parable? Just this that sin is very contagious, but holiness is not.

It takes a lot of time and effort to make a knife in a hospital sterile. But how long does it take to pollute it? Just a moment. Even so: It is very easy for someone to make you sinful. But it is very difficult for anyone to make you holy. Sin is communicated very easily, but not holiness. Remember that.

Then the Lord went on to say, "Therefore whatever you offer is defiled" (Haggai 2:14). Even if the offering itself was ceremonially pure, their hands were defiled by sin, and so their offerings were defiled too. This is what the Lord is saying to the church today too. The prayers that believers pray may sound fervent and "holy". There may be loud "Amen"s and "Hallelujah"s from others too. But if there is sin in a person's life, his prayers are sinful. If you fight with your wife, how can you offer a pure prayer to God without setting matters right with your wife first? Your unholy life communicates sin to your prayer. People may be impressed by your prayer. But God rejects it, because there was "sin in your holy activity" (Ex.28:38).

The Lord then urged them the people to set right their sins and concluded with this promise, "From this day onward I will bless you" (Haggai 2:19). He desires to bless us. It is only our sin that robs us of that blessing.