This is the seventh part of our series in the book of 1 Peter, an epistle written to believers in the first century, who were spread out throughout the region of Asia Minor. Peter is encouraging them and reminding them to keep their eyes focused on God and the things of God in the midst of the great persecution that they are suffering as a result of them being associated with Christ.
This letter that was written to believers 2000 years ago speaks to us as well, and gives us good counsel on how to get through life these days, when Christians are once again being marginalized and sometimes considered fools for what we believe.
If you believe in the biblical story of creation (which I hope you do), you are likely to be in the minority in New England. In the country as a whole, however, I believe statistics show that creationists are still leading in the polls. But the trend is against us.
If you believe in the sanctity of life and are against abortion under any circumstances, you are likely to be in the minority in New England.
If you believe in traditional marriage…if you believe that homosexuality is a sin and is unnatural, then according to all the polls I’ve seen, you are becoming more and more the minority, again, especially in our part of the country.
If you believe in abstinence…and that boys and girls, men and women should abstain from sex until marriage, (not only believe it but practice it) you are certainly in the minority, even in Christian churches!
If you believe gambling is wrong and is not only harmful to society, but shows a lack of trust in the provision of God, you are the exception. That goes for lottery and casinos.
If you believe smoking is inconsistent with the proper care of the temple of God---our bodies---, or think gluttony is a sin, you’re the exception.
If you believe lying is wrong, even if it seems necessary to protect you or your reputation, you are probably one in 10,000.
If you care about your brothers and sisters who are being tortured for being Christian around the world, you’re certainly the exception, not only in the world, but in the church!
If you believe in prayer, and pray, you are probably the exception.
So with all these shifts in our culture AWAY from the biblical principles and AWAY from what Christians traditionally have believed, that we are experiencing in the world AND in the church, how do we, the faithful, stay encouraged? How do we get through life? How do we maintain joy when all that we believe in is being dismantled and falling apart around us? How do we hold fast to Christian doctrine and practices when it’s becoming so unpopular and even considered hate speech?
If you are living in the world with no problems, no friction, no disgust in the direction things are going these days, then you are probably out of step with the ways of our God, as given to us in the Bible. If that’s the case, you need to examine your faith and get right with God.
Another biblical author, the apostle John, tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
The apostle Paul says in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Not acceptable by man, but acceptable to God!!!
I’m afraid the world has seduced us very effectively and we have become very comfortable in the world, even as Christians. The majority of Christians today are almost completely indistinguishable from the rest of the pagan world.
There is no appreciable difference in our use of foul language, in our divorce rates, in our selection of movies that we watch, in our foregoing church to do something more enjoyable.
Instead of the Church influencing the world for Christ, the world has influenced the Church much more effectively. As the saying goes, “the church has so little influence on the world because the world has so much influence on the church!”
ILLUSTRATION: A pastor friend of mine came to the pastor’s prayer meeting last Monday all discouraged and beaten down because more and more of his flock are going to sports activities instead of church. He gave example after example of members who chose to do something other than worshiping their God and Savior. He gave one account of a member of his church who said they won’t be in church because they’re going to a Frisbee tournament! A FRISBEE TOURNAMENT!!! And this is a member of a Christian church! Christ went to the cross to die for me and I’m going to go to a Frisbee tournament instead of worshiping Him? Please don’t ever tell me that.
And yet the same things we struggle with today, the Church has been struggling with since it’s conception. And Peter gives Godly counsel through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on how we are to live our lives as Christians in a fallen world.
Be holy! That’s the exhortation. To be holy means to be separated or set apart from all others.
This is the greatest call a person can have, to be holy. We can never be as holy as God, but we can be set apart and separated from the world for the purpose of godliness.
As children of God who have been called and have responded to His gift of grace and have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son, it should be our greatest desire to live for God and do everything humanly possible in this life to please our Savior and to seek to be like Him.
Our desire to be holy is directly proportionate to our reverence for God. If we have a low view of God, we will have no real motivation to be holy. But if we have a high view of God and revere Him above all things, then holiness will be our greatest desire, and it will have centrality in our lives and it will be our highest priority in life to worship Him and love Him and serve Him.
The exhortation to be holy causes us to ask the question: What is central in my life? Is living life to the fullest in this world your goal; getting the most out of life? Earning the most money? Winning the most money? Being the best liked person? Being most successful? Or is Christ the center of your life? Is obedience to Christ and sacrificing for Christ your greatest purpose? The centrality of Christ in our lives is paramount if we are to be holy.
This is a hard lesson here, because all of us are guilty of lowering God a couple notches so we can justify not being so holy.
So how are we to get along as a people who are different? How are we to live out our life as holy people with Christ central in our life?
In our passage today, we (past tense) read the second of several exhortations from Peter on how to live as children of God in a godless world. Last week, “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Again, Peter helps us understand how we can be holy. He mentions three practices here in our passage today that will help us understand what it means to be holy.
I) We must cultivate a lifestyle of obedience to God’s word. “As obedient children…”
A more accurate translation of this is “children of obedience”. “As children of obedience…” “Obedient children” suggests act or conduct like a POW obeying his captor under duress.
But “children of obedience” suggests character, position. It suggests a surrender to listen, follow and be in a state of compliance; even a desire to comply to the one who is in a position of authority. I am not always an obedient child of God, but I am a child of obedience to God. It is my character and intention to obey God.
Obedience can happen for a few different reasons. You may obey because of fear of punishment. You may obey because there’s something in it for you. Or you may obey because you have great love and reverence and respect and fear for the one who calls for your obedience.
And in order to obey, you need a couple things. You certainly need the Holy Spirit who teaches and reveals and convicts us and enables us to obey. And you need to know God’s word. There was a time early in my Christian life that I didn’t know it was wrong to look at a woman with lust, but then I read Matthew 5 and other passages which tells me it’s wrong. Now I know and try to obey.
So to be holy, we must be children of obedience who seek to know and follow the teachings of Christ in order that we may be more like Him; and to be open to the Holy Spirit who will lead us along the path towards holiness.
II) We need to make a break from our former lifestyles. “Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance…”
How much has your life changed since you’ve been saved? If someone were to see your life mapped out on a long sheet of paper, would they see a shift in interests, in affections, in behavior, in friendships, in use of time?
Or a more important question, How much has your life remained changed since you’ve been saved? Sometimes we make a drastic change when we’re saved, but over time we begin to revert to our former ignorant ways, when we were not aware of God’s ways.
A change takes place the moment we are saved. Our heart is changed. The instant we believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross; that He died, was buried and that God raised Him for the dead, having paid the penalty for our sins and being freed from them, everything changes.
Instead of running FROM God, we start running TO God. Instead of chasing sin, we begin to be chased BY sin. Instead of dreading church involvement, we begin to SEEK church involvement and cherish it. Instead of getting the most we can for ourselves, we begin to GIVE as much as we can to others. Instead of putting a dollar bill in the offering tray, we’re giving sacrificially that Christianity may spread throughout the world.
When we were saved, there was a break from the passions of our former lifestyle. Those affections that we had no longer have dominion over us. Once saved, we have new affections. Ungodly desires still tempt us to turn away from God, but since we’ve been given a new heart, we should be able to recognize them as sin by the Holy Spirit.
Prior to being saved, we lived in sin and loved our sin and saw no problem with it. There was no conviction, no guilt, no feeling the need for forgiveness.
Don’t you know people like that? People who get drunk every weekend, sleep around or have sex out of marriage, do all kinds of things, and have no remorse. We see it in public figures all the time. And when someone gets caught doing something wrong, they will almost always apologize for the harm caused someone or that they caused someone to be hurt, but very rarely will they apologize and ask forgiveness for doing wrong.
But once saved, we get an understanding that sin exists in us. The Holy Spirit places in us an awareness of right and wrong. And as we grow in sanctification, we begin to recognize sin and turn away from sins and the Holy Spirit convicts us and reveals sin that we may flee from it.
Ephesians 2:1-3 talks about living in the passions of our flesh or the “lusts” of our flesh. It’s how we used to go after anything we wanted, right or wrong in order to satisfy some desire in us. We had no thoughts of God, no inhibitions, no guilt, no remorse (unless we got caught).
So as God’s people, we are to cultivate a lifestyle of obedience to God’s word. We must make a break from the passions of our former ignorance, and
III) We must remove the separation between secular and sanctified. “be holy in ALL your conduct…” Don’t distinguish when to be holy and when to live like the world.
We are not to live parts of our lives in a secular way and other parts in a holy way. We are to be fully holy:
- when at church and during the week our behavior should be the same
- when the waitress messes up your order
- when people around you are telling dirty or hurtful jokes or gossiping
- when everyone else is conforming to the world YOU are to remain holy and NOT to conform to the world
- when in front of your TV or computer late at night and you come across websites or filthy movies that are taking the Lord’s precious name in vain and engaging in all kinds of depraved activities.
Are you holy all the time, in every place to your very core? If you are saved, you ought to be. “Be holy in all your conduct.” God is holy and pure and righteous and true all the time.
Even if people provoke God to anger, He is always holy. Holiness is His highest attribute. The angels in Isaiah 6 didn’t shout love, love, love or purity, purity, purity or righteous, righteous, righteous. They shouted holy, holy, holy! He is holy through and through. He is all holy. If you could search the deepest depths of God’s spirit, you would find perfect holiness.
Are you that holy? We can never be totally holy in this life, but that should be our greatest endeavor. If we could see the deepest levels of your spirit, would there be holiness? Or is your holiness only skin deep?
We are to be holy not only in the breadth of our lives, but in the depth of our lives. We don’t just want to be holy in ALL areas of our lives, but deeply in EACH area of our lives.
Many of us are holy on the surface. But when you dig down; when you look under the hood; when you are squeezed by circumstances, is it holiness that oozes out or is it those old tendencies from your former ignorance?
Christianity and holiness must be integrated into every area of our lives. When we are faced with whether or not to embrace homosexuality and gay marriage, the world is almost overwhelmingly for it, or so they say, but as Christians, we stand for Christian principles and say no!
Sometimes we may WANT to conform, but we must choose to obey because we are children of obedience and we are to be holy in all our conduct.
And our motivation is not that we will earn our way to heaven; it’s not that we may look good to our church brothers and sisters; it’s not so we can get something in return for doing it right.
Our motivation to be holy is that the Lord of our lives, the Savior who loves us deeply and unconditionally to the point of dying on a despised cross in our place so that we can be justified and blameless before a righteous, holy God; that He has supremacy and total centrality in our lives; we are to be holy because He is holy.
This is just one more way that Peter, along with all the writers of the New Testament books seek to get our eyes off the world and focused on kingdom things and on the Christ who saved us while we were yet sinners and who loved us and loves us with a perfect love.
The holiness of God’s people is a central theme throughout the entire Bible, and it is true today that we, as God’s elect, are to be holy for He is holy.
There may be some here who are faking the Christian life. You live one way here at church and a total other way every other day of the week. And only you know it. You may be fooling your church family. You may be hiding your faith from your co-workers and friends. Only you know that you are wearing two faces. And you’re trying to juggle everything to keep your secret safe. If you’re far enough along, you may not even know that you’re doing it, because you’ve done it for so long.
This is the day to recommit yourself to holiness. This is the day to put aside the former self, to do away with the passions of your former ignorance and to devote your life to our holy God who loves you more than you could imagine. It may come with a cost, but the reward will be far greater than you could ever imagine. When you begin to walk in obedience to Christ, you will begin to be transformed into the likeness of Christ and you will be abundantly blessed as you walk with the Lord.
“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, for I am holy.”
