Be Holy Like God Is Holy—Say What?! (Part 1)

Be Holy Like God Is Holy—Say What?! (Part 1)  

Today I want to continue in 1 Peter, Chapter 1. In writing to followers of Jesus, the Apostle Peter gave instructions on righteous living. Referring back to my blog post of August 30, 2017, we see Peter extolling the people to: 1- Gird up the loins of their minds—bracing up to take action. 2- Be sober—that is be watchful and self-controlled. 3- Rest in the hope and grace abundantly provided by the revelation of Christ Jesus in our spirits and lives. (1 Peter 1:13)

From Pinterest

With that in mind, let’s carry on. Peter’s exhortation and his sentence continues on to where the rubber meets the road. Verses 14-15: “as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’”

WOW! God is calling us to be holy like Him. We need to not freak out and loose heart at this appeal. Peter knew God and knew human nature. He was very familiar with his own weaknesses. Don’t think for a moment he had no recollection of denying Jesus three times on the night Jesus could have used his support the most.  

This is why we need to equip ourselves to be faithful followers of Jesus. Look again at the words of Peter. 

Let’s review the earlier part of this chapter and see the progression:

Through God’s mercy we were born again (v.3) → into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus (v.3) → to an incorruptible, undefiled, everlasting inheritance (v.4) → and are kept by the power of God (v.5) → though, for a short time, we’re grieved with trials (v.6) → but our genuine faith, being tested, is more precious and more lasting than gold (v.7) → giving praise, honor, and glory to Jesus who we love though we’ve not yet seen Him (v.8) → receiving the result of our faith—salvation of our souls (v.9) → of which the prophets foretold, that the grace would come to us (v.10) → and revealed beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow (v.11) → and for us the ministering of those preaching the Gospel by the Holy Spirit, sent from Heaven (v.12) → so we must gird up the loins of our minds, be sober, and rest our hope fully upon the grace of Christ (v.13) → being obedient children not returning to our past sins as ignorant sinners → but as He who called us is holy we should be holy in all our behavior (v.15) → because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Notice, we began this journey as a result of God’s great mercy—that is His amazing grace and love for us in that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8). Then in the end we come to mature faith, aiming to be holy as He is holy.

It’s true that the moment we are born-again all our sins are washed away and we stand clean and without the stain of sin. But then as we continue living we commit sins because we still are human and have weaknesses. As we grow in knowledge and understanding of our Lord, we become more like Him and sin less often and less egregiously.  This is the process of being sanctified and equipped to live according to God’s will. In meditating on these verses it appears that the keys to being holy are five-fold:

1- Have genuine faith. Without genuine faith the desire and revelation of the value of obedience to God is simply not there. The person whose faith isn’t real will have no, or very little, yearning to follow the teachings of Jesus nor will they seek to obey Christ at all costs. Basically that person lacks passion for God and His ways.

2- Gird up the loins of our minds. We need to continuously renew our minds with God’s Word. The Word goes through our minds to get into our spirits and becomes a part of who we are. The essence of Christ becomes the essence of ourselves when we feed on and digest Scripture. We’re then girding up, strengthening our minds and wills, discarding hindrances and burdensome weights that stand in the way of freely running the race Christ sets before each of us. 

3- Be sober. This comes as we gird up the loins of our minds. We’ll become more mindful and will be cautious to recognize the wiles of the devil. The charms of Satan are his deception, trickery, and trap setting. We must be sober and watchful to avoid his crafty plans for us. And we need to soberly follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

This narrative may sound quite serious and void of fun but, while it’s definitely serious, it is surely not void of fun. When we follow Christ we’re embarking on a life adventure which we probably would never have imagined for ourselves. It will likely include more thrills and pure joy than we thought possible for our one small life. That’s because we’ll be doing our own part in God’s cosmic plan for His huge created universe. Oh, the far-reaching results of one person’s abandoned life of service to the Savior is beyond our imagination. Look at Billy Graham, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Mother Teresa.

4- As we do the above, we can rest in living hope, trusting our Lord with the results through Jesus Christ. 

5- And, as Peter warned, we need to be careful not to fall back into any old bad habits or former ways from when we were ignorant of Jesus and His desires for us. That would be plum stupid.

So these things we are to do to honor and obey our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not conforming ourselves to former lusts, as in our ignorance; but as He who called us is holy we can also be holy in all our conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

As we learn of Him, trust Him more each day, and depend on His Holy Spirit indwelling us, we can live beyond the limitations of our humanness. In my next blog post we’ll continue looking at the “how to” of being holy and overcoming the temptations of falling back into our former sins.

©Copyright 2017 Connie Wohlford