“For I am the Lord your God.
Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy as a I am holy…For I am the
Lord that brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall
be holy as I am holy (Leviticus 11:44,45).” These were the words left ringing in the ears
of the Israelites as Moses concludes the portion of the law dealing with clean
and unclean animals. God was extremely
particular about what His people could partake of and what they should
avoid. While these laws may seem
burdensome and arbitrary to Christians in the 21st century, the fact
is this is what God commanded.
In the
late 1st century AD, the apostle Peter wrote to disciples who were
scattered throughout the world, living as aliens, as those who don’t belong in
this world. His audience was surrounded
by pagans and Jews, they were encountering various trials, and it seems that
holiness was becoming more difficult by the day. So Peter offered this advice, “Therefore
prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely
on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not conform to the
former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who
called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior, because it is written, ‘You
shall be holy, for I am holy.’ (1 Peter 1:13-16)”
Peter,
like Moses before him, challenges and commands his audience to model themselves
after the holiness of the Father. God is
holy; therefore, as His children and followers, we should strive to be holy as
well. To be holy means to be set apart
or exalted because of goodness or righteousness. Peter prescribes two things the Christian
must do in order to pursue the holiness o God.
First, he demands that we prepare
our minds for action by 1) being sober and alert, and 2) fixing our hope on the
grace of eternal redemption. Sobriety is essential for a mind prepared for
action. If we are to be ready to make
quick decisions of faith and conscience, we must be aware of our surroundings
so that the devil cannot take us by surprise.
When we are tempted, we should be able to see that temptation as sin,
and immediately have a godly response. This
constant state of being on guard can become tiresome, though. Therefore Peter reminds us to keep our eyes
on the prize; that is, to fix our hope completely on the hope of the
resurrection. That is our
motivation. That is what will reenergize
us in times of weakness – the hope of eternity with our Lord.
Second,
the apostle demands obedience. But this
obedience is not simply checklist obedience.
What Peter demands here is total conformity to the will of the
Father. He qualifies this obedience as
not being conformed to the fleshly lusts that we had while we were separate
from Christ, dead in our sins. We must
leave that life behind us, nailed to the cross and buried with our Lord. We must push on to bigger and more excellent
things. We must push on to
holiness. Like God is holy, we must be
holy in all our actions and behavior; constantly striving to be more like Him
every day.
He is
the Lord that brought us up from the bondage of sin, to be our God; thus we
shall be holy for He is holy.
