Holiness and the very concept of holiness is something that is lost in today’s culture and in the church itself. The very concept of God and His holiness has dismissed. According to Dr Steve DeNeff, author of the book “The way of Holiness: Experiencing God’s Work in You,” he says:
“So, as a rule, the less we think of God, the better we think of ourselves. If God is the jolly good fellow we think he is, we have less to feel sorry for and nothing to fear. So the doctrines of holiness and sin either rise or fall together. What we do to the one, we have done—whether knowingly or unknowingly—to the other.” [1]
As such, we, as a people and culture, lower our view of God, if indeed we believe in Him at all. God then becomes “The Great Santa Clause in the sky.” To that concept of God, Denuff says:
“This is the god of good feelings and high ideals. He is politically correct. The new god loves the homosexual but hates the moralist. He’ll tolerate abortion but never child abuse. He is honored to have us take his sacraments in the sanctuary but hardly notices moments later when we take his name in vain in the parking lot.
Our modern deity is kinder, gentler, and more tolerant than the heavenly tyrant of the last century. He is the perfect countryman. He espouses every view and no view all at once. He is all grace so no grace is necessary. He is love without discrimination, mercy without law, power without intimidation, knowledge without conviction, truth without an attitude. He might even be a she.” [2]
Many are quick to point out that God is love (1 John 4:8). But we need to realize that God is a “holy love,” and holiness is what defines God. His Holiness is the one attribute of God that all His others attributes flow. The Bible clearly tells that God is “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8), and not “love, love, love.” Holiness is what makes Him God, and because He is holy, He is also just and His holiness demands that He judge all that is unholy.
Today’s passage deals with being holy as the people of God. Bear in mind that Peter is writing this to the church, fellow believer and those who possess eternal life in Jesus.
1 Peter 1:13–19
I know that it isn’t fair mentioning this so close to lunch time, so I ask your forgiveness in advance. Did you know that the Food and Drug Administration has a publication that gives acceptable levels of ingestion of food contaminates? The first paragraph of their “Food Defect Action Levels” booklet says, “Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 110.110 allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish maximum levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods for human use that present no health hazard.” These “Food Defect Action Levels” listed in this booklet are set on this premise—that they pose no inherent hazard to health.” [3]
Not too bad, right? I’m not done yet.
Did you know that, according to this publication, it is healthy for your Fig Newtons to have up to thirteen insect heads per 100 grams (3 ½ ounces) of fig paste? Did you also know that up to four rodent hairs and 150 insect fragments in a 1 pound jar of peanut butter, or If you are having spaghetti or pizza, or anything involving tomato paste, an 8 ounce can of Tomato Paste can have over 30 fly eggs and 2 maggots and still be safe for human consumption.
How pure is the food we eat? Now in keeping with our theme of holiness, how pure is our heart supposed to be? The Psalmist wrote:
Psalm 24:3–4 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.
So how pure, how holy do we need to be? Can we be holy and still be have some contaminations from the world? The Christian’s heart is no different from a jar of peanut butter with rodent hairs and insect fragments. Our hearts must be cleaned to properly guide the believer. That’s why King David cried out (after he was called down by Nathan the prophet concerning his sin with Bathsheba):
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Now here’s the problem. Does anyone here live a life with totally pure motives? Or are we all sinners? And have we all missed the glory of God? (Romans 3:23) Yet Peter quotes from Leviticus:
1 Peter 1:16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
This is the central theme to the book of Leviticus. This phrase can be found in 3 places in the Book of Leviticus. The whole theme of this book is just how do we approach a most holy God? The words holy and holiness, to be sanctified and sanctification (from th same root word in the Hebrew and the Greek), in all its forms, appears in the Bible over 900 times. There must be something to this word. To be holy is to be completely separate, set aside, and devoted to God. Our hearts and attitudes must be pure; not FDA 4-rodent hairs pure, or even only 30 fly eggs and 2 maggots pure; but Jesus Christ 100% pure. Jesus said:
Matthew 5:48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
How is that possible?
We have lost sight of what is holy and what holy lives look like. Look at the world compared to those in the church, is there a difference? As Christians, we have whole Christian denominations falling away from the faith, striving to please and to accommodate world, rather than God. Who sets the standards by which we, as God’s people, live? Does God set our standards or does the world?
Peter, as he writes to persecuted Christian, and he gives a call to holy living.
1 Peter 1:13 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.
"Therefore," Peter is drawing a conclusion, and he now going to put in practical terms our actions based on what he had just said. What did Peter say? Look at what God has done for us.
1 Peter 1:10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,
What God has done is given us this great salvation. This grace that has come to us. So great that in verse 12, the angels desire to look into it. It is all about what God has done for us, not the other way around. Therefore, “prepare your minds for action.” Holiness is not a passive activity. It involves the conscious act of the mind. Holy living demands determination.
“Keep sober in spirit” – is the opposite of intoxication. It’s self-control. Discipline thinking requires concentration and intentionality. It is living with the senses heighten, not dulled/anesthetized by the world. Example- We have been dulled/desensitized by all the sex and violence piped into our homes via the TV, the computer, and various computer video games. Nothing shocks us anymore. It is keeping our eyes, not on the world, but on Jesus.
“Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Realize that ours is a future hope of rewards when Jesus returns. Our motive to be holy – Jesus is returning and how will he find us?
1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
As obedient children, we are to be doers of the Word, not just hearers:
James 1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
It’s easy to read and study the word, but living it out, day in and day out, is another matter.
“Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.” We are not to do those things we did before we came unto salvation. Before we did not know any better but now we do. As Christians, should not our lives be patterned after one whose Name we bear?
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We are called to set our minds on things above, on godly things. But in reality, what do we really do? Do we fill our minds with the things of the world, or of those things of God?
Ephesians 4:22–24 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. When we become a new creation in Christ, our new nature was created for righteousness and holiness.
1 Peter 1:15–16 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
Make no mistake, God called each and every one of us. We have no power, will or inclination to go to God, so God came to us. He sent Jesus. Those of us who have accepted Christ, we did so because God called, not because we sought Him out. God called us from the darkness into His light (1 John 1:5).
“YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” Right here is where we fall down. We do not understand the holiness of God – for God is holy. We have made God in the image of man – rather than have man conform his image to that of God’s.
Isaiah, who was a priest , around 700 BC, who did everything right, yet when he found himself in the presence of God, in the presence of God’s holiness, he became very aware of his unholiness.
Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
When we begin to comprehend the holiness of God, we can begin to see what God has called us to do. “Be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.” Everything we do must be in holiness, not just our actions on Sunday morning. God gives us many things, Spiritual gifts, blessings, power, privileges, but never does He give us permission to sin or to be disobedient. Years of obedient living can never buy an hour of disobedience. The excuse I often hear is, “God wants me to be happy doesn’t He?" Never once in Scripture can I recall God calling us to happiness. He calls us to be holy, not happy. Happiness is circumstantial. Holiness bring eternal joy.
1 Thessalonians 4:7–8 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
It is through His Spirit He cleanses, sanctifies, and makes us holy. Why then are we like pigs? You can clean up pig, but at the end of the day, the pig is back eating slop wallowing in the mud. Like obedient children (verse 14) we must be like our Father in heaven. As our earthly children inherit the nature of their fathers, so we as God’s children, those that He has called out of the darkness into His light, must take on His nature, the essence of which is holiness.
2 Peter 1:4b … so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
What is God’s divine nature? Holiness. So how does this work, the partaking of in His nature of holiness?
1 Peter 1:17 If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
We who call on God as Father, must conduct ourselves as His children. And as a Father, our Father will judge us, not in condemnation, but in rewards at the Judgment seat of Christ. "In fear" – Not fear of losing salvation, but fear of disappointing our Father. Do we fear disappointing our Heavenly Father? Paul explains this
1 Corinthians 3:13–15 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Here is a key note to understand: “during the time of your stay on earth.” We are just passing through. Earth is not our home.
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
We are "aliens and strangers" here are earth and during our short lives in this place. Our home is not or should be be considered here. Paul tells the Philippians:
Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Do we conduct ourselves as citizens of heaven? Peter continues and explains our motivation for holiness:
1 Peter 1:18–19 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Our salvation was free, but it cost Jesus everything. Our salvation came at great cost. Our call to holiness means nothing less than giving Jesus our all. Not holding anything back.
Herein lies the Gospel. Jesus paid the price we could never pay. We have been redeemed with all that is holy. Now we have been called to holiness. The problem is we try to leave in those insect pieces, and other contaminates of world and try to call ourselves holy. We are only fooling ourselves. We need to be thoroughly cleansed. Jesus calls us to give at all over to him and let Him clean us.
[1] Steve DeNeff, The Way of Holiness: Experience God’s Work in You (Indianapolis, IN: WPH, 2010), 48. Note: This message and sermon series borrows heavily from Deneff’s book.
[2] Ibid., 26
[3] www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/guidancedocumentsregulatoryinformation/ucm056174.htm
