Be Holy

I Pet. 1:14-16

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy as I am holy.

 

The Beginnings

What is the process leading to holiness? How can I ever leave behind my former passions? At the beginning of the chapter, Peter introduced the letter by saying that a believer' state was according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus by being sprinkled with His blood. Thankfully all of my salvation is completely out of human hands! Before there was time, I was His! What a thought!

 

The New Life

 



The Father has caused me to be born again by His great mercy and through the resurrection of Jesus. But born again for what reason? Is it just to live a better life as I see fit? No, it is now to live with His purpose and means, to live in resurrection power. What is my future and my hope? I have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for me. While I live on this earth with my new nature and with heaven constantly in view, I am guarded through faith ensuring that I will be ready for this salvation yet to be finalized. In this thought I am to rejoice! Why do I need such a hope and future? Primarily, it is because grievous and varied trials will test the genuineness of my faith. When I am tested and tried enduring to the end, I will come forth as gold. Establishing firmly in my mind and heart that the most precious thing to me is my faith, my relationship with Jesus. Even though I don't see Him, I believe and rejoice!

 

The Life-Style

 

There fore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Everything that I have known or experienced before [my very existence as a child of God], now becomes my motivation for enduring. I must be prepared, filled with the Word and steeped in prayer. With a sober mind [well aware of the struggle yet to come], I must set my hope on grace!! My entire life must be saturated in grace! As an obedient child, I am to emulate my Father. As He is holy, so I should be. What a life! So impossible except for His grace! His grace makes the impossible possible. It makes the unbelievable believable, and it makes the sinner a saint! Since I was ransomed by the blood of my God, and foreknown before time existed, my life, my faith, and my hope are in God.

 

The Result

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart...Since God has called me to a life of obedience, I am purified and functioning in the grace atmosphere so that I might truthfully love my brothers. Not so that I might get something from them or so that I might appear a certain way, but so I might sincerely reflect my God who loved me to the point the gift and death of His Son. How do I do this when I am not really lovable nor are other people? It all comes back to my new nature. I must function in the living and abiding Word of God. His word is the source of all the grace that I need. It will enable me to live soberly, prepared for what comes down the pike, and all the while loving as I should. And what do I need to do? Get prepared. Be as passionate for God as I was passionate for sin! Struggle as hard as I can but through the grace of God.

 

Father,

What a life you have called me to live! You have shown my human impossibility and replaced it with the grace possibility. I want to live for You, setting my mind on You and enduring with Your grace. I want to follow You as Your obedient child. Send Your grace and strengthen my desire and my resolve.

In Jesus name,
Amen