Holiness: The Change Starts Inside – Object Lesson
This is an object lesson that can help you teach your class about holiness!
Holiness: The Change Starts Inside
Needed:
- Two clear plastic containers or cups (avoid tinted ones so the color change is easy to see)
- A small bottle or dropper labeled “God” (filled with a clear sodium hydroxide solution)
- Two smaller containers partially filled with water
- Phenolphthalein indicator for one cup (turns pink when mixed with base)
- Bromothymol blue indicator for the other (turns blue when mixed with base)
- Safety goggles and gloves, especially if children help with the experiment
Lesson Setup:
This lesson is a vivid way to show that holiness begins on the inside. While the outside of a person might look right—clean, well-behaved, and put together—God looks deeper. He sees the heart, and real holiness starts when He lives inside of us.
Begin by showing the two clear containers and explain that each one represents a person. From the outside, they look fine—good attitudes, kind words, maybe even church attendance—but we don’t really know what’s happening inside. Hold up the cups so the class can see that the liquid looks ordinary and plain. That’s what a life looks like without the transforming presence of God—clean enough, but unchanged.
Now bring out the small bottle labeled “God.” Explain that when we invite Him into our lives through prayer, repentance, and the Holy Ghost, He begins to change who we are from the inside out. Carefully add a few drops of the “God” solution to one container and gently swirl it. The color will shift dramatically, turning bright pink or blue. The once dull and lifeless water becomes vibrant and alive—just like our hearts when God fills us with His Spirit.
Repeat the same with the second container so the class can see that God can change anyone who allows Him to work. Emphasize that holiness isn’t something we can fake or create on our own. It’s what happens when God’s presence transforms us completely.
*Tags: Be wholly for God is holy, dress, holiness, holy, look right, modest apparel, talk right, modesty, inside and outside
