BE HOLY, BECAUSE I AM HOLY
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.
The logic is simple, straightforward and undeniable. You conform to the values of your master. You represent him, and the things you do, the lifestyle you display, your choices, your priorities, all that you are reflect on him. He is holy, so be holy in all you do.
Peter does not give us a comprehensive definition of what the holiness of God looks like. There is an assumption as he writes that we know; perhaps not to the smallest detail, but certainly we know if we are in the right ballpark.
He tells us, “do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” Simply put, don’t let the fact that these desires have been with you for a long time mean that you have to give in to them as you have done so in the past. If you know that God is not pleased then you listen to God, as his obedient child. He should dominate, not desires that are evil and displeasing, however long they have been around.
He calls us to be conscious that we are among non-Christians, and therefore to live lives that express how God’s values and concerns dominate in you, so that they can see and acknowledge God’s proper place in life. At the very least we cannot live lives that are worse than their standard of holiness!
And more specifically, he calls on us to rid ourselves of “all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” Clearly these destructive behaviours are incompatible with God. Instead he calls on us to “love one another deeply, from the heart.”
It is easy to respond to the general rule “be holy” and create many sub-rules that we think conform to what it means to be holy. And we start to pontificate about the things we look at, the clothes we wear, the books we read and even the thoughts we should have.
But what Peter calls us to is not a rule but a person: God. As we know him, so we become more like him. As we live in reverent fear of him (that is, we honour and respect his authority and his judgement) so we are obedient to him rather than conform to the evil desires in us. And as we are more and more conscious of what he is doing in our lives (for example, the Holy Spirit in us giving us the ability to love, as well as the rest of his fruit) we exercise these qualities wholeheartedly, in faith, so that what is a seed becomes an abundance of fruit. In doing so we reject their antithesis, like malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander.
Being holy is less about fighting our sinful nature by restraining it with a set of rules as much as letting God be the rightful king in our lives.
For this to happen, we must know God and to know God, we must know his Word. Knowing his Word and knowing God provides the anchor for our souls, in the midst of the transience and capriciousness of human life.
“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”