Be Holy
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
August 6, 2006


Today’s message is from 1 Peter 1:13-2:3. It’s the passage the NIV gives the title Be Holy. Peter is going to begin to tell us how to live holy lives in Christ Jesus. Remember, as we read the passage, that we are reading the word of God. We are not just reading Peter’s ideas about how to live a holy life, but what the Holy Spirit of God and of Christ led Peter to write.

Also, as always, I encourage you to read your Bibles every day. Read the word of God and study it and meditate on it. Pray about what you read and pray for understanding. Pray for the Holy Spirit to convict you with regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.

[Prayer]

Now let’s read the passage. 1 Peter 1:13-2:3:

Be Holy
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
17Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For,

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord stands forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.
2:1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 1:13-2:3 –NIV)

This letter, written by the apostle Peter through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as I’ve already mentioned, is written to us (as well as all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ down through the ages). We are identified in the very first verse of this letter—1 Peter 1:1—as God’s elect, those who have been chosen for forgiveness of sins through the sprinkling of Jesus’s blood and for obedience to him, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. I talked about theses things last week.

After the “to” section of his letter—the greeting—Peter told us that God has given us a new birth and that we are looking forward to a marvelous inheritance which he is keeping in heaven for us—also, that our faith, which is of greater worth than gold—that is, of greater worth than anything in this present world—will result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. And that we love Jesus! Even though we haven’t seen him, we love him. God is giving us all these things—a new birth, faith, an inheritance, and love for Jesus. Therefore, what must we do?

Today’s passage starts out with the word therefore:  “Therefore, prepare your minds for action.”  Peter is going to tell us what we should do as a result of what God has done for us—what he has given us—and notice that he has given us all these things. We have them right now—a new birth, faith, an inheritance, and love for Jesus. (If you have God’s salvation, you have these things. If you don’t have God’s salvation, don’t wait any longer. Give yourself to Jesus and ask for his grace and mercy.)

Now, let’s look at the first four verses in today’s passage:

13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16 –NIV)

Peter is going to tell us what we must do. In fact, he has devoted most of the rest of his letter to telling what we must do. The first thing that we have to do is to prepare our minds for action. What do you think it means to prepare your mind for action? Peter is not just telling you to expect something to happen. He is telling you to get ready to do something yourself!

And how do you prepare your mind for action? How do you get ready to do something? The first thing is to be self-controlled. This means to live a disciplined life. If you set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed, the praise and glory and honor, you will be able to live a disciplined life.

Peter tells us to live as obedient children—to not conform to the evil desires we had when we lived in ignorance. We are no longer ignorant. We know what our former condition was. We were enemies of God. He could have rightly taken out his wrath against us. He could have taken vengeance against us. But instead he had mercy on us and took the punishment upon himself. He suffered in our place.

We must not conform to the evil desires we had when we were ignorant, but instead, be holy in all that we do. We must be holy in all that we do! We must be holy because God is holy!

What does it mean to be holy? Jesus is our example. He is holy. He is God. Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples and told them, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) Luke tells us that Jesus also said that you have to do this daily. (Luke 9:23) It’s a way of living. It means that you have to give up your own will and desire and follow Jesus. If anyone wants to save his own life, he will lose it. Jesus gave up his own life—his own will—his human will for comfort and security—for human power and glory—and suffered and died for us.

To be holy, we have to follow the example of Jesus in everything we do. The “What Would Jesus Do?” question of a few years ago is a good one. Do you ask that question about everything you do? Do you ask, “Will this thing I’m planning on doing make me more like Christ—or less?” Do you ask, “Am I denying myself to help someone in need—or am I saving my own life?” Do you ask, “Will this thing I’m doing or saying build up—or will it tear down?” Do you ask, “Am I doing this for the glory of God—or for my own human glory?” The apostle Paul wrote, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)

Do you do everything for the glory of God? Do you eat and drink for the glory of God? Do you work at your job for the glory of God? If you take a walk in the park, do you do it for the glory of God? If you watch a beautiful sunset, do you do it for the glory of God? If you read a story, do you do it for the glory of God? If you sit down to watch TV, do you do it for the glory of God? If you lead a bible study or lead people in worship, do you do it for the glory of God? Do you ask yourself if you are using the time God has given you to do what he wants you to do—or for what you want to do? (If you can say yes to both—for what he wants me to do and for what I want to do—you are becoming more like Christ.)

I don’t suppose that any of us can say that we do absolutely everything for the glory of God.  (If you can say that, go directly to heaven!) Yes, it’s true that we are not completely obedient children. We still tend to conform to the evil desires that defined who we were when we lived in ignorance. We are not perfectly holy as God is holy.

But God chose us—he elected us—for sanctification and obedience. Sanctification means making something holy. God chose us to make us holy. When God chooses to do something, he cannot and will not fail! He says that we will see Jesus face-to-face and we will be like him! (1 John 3:2b) We have the cross as the sign of his commitment to us!

Don’t you want to be like Jesus? —to be pleasing to God in every way just as Jesus is? —and to hear Jesus himself say, “Well done good and faithful servant?”  I know that you do, because God has chosen you for obedience to Jesus Christ through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. He has given you a new birth into a living hope.

Brothers and sisters, pray that we may all set our hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed, and be holy as God is holy. I know we will be!

Now let’s look at verses 17 through 21. Listen as I read them:

17Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:17-21 –NIV)

I will say it again. GOD is speaking to us through this writing of the apostle Peter. We are God’s elect. We have been chosen by God the Father, according to his foreknowledge, for grace and glory—for cleansing from sin and to be made perfect through Jesus Christ. Peter has told us how we must live in view of what God has done for us—as obedient children, setting our hope fully on what God has promised us. Now he’s going to expand upon the same exhortation.

Verse 17 says, “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” What does this verse tell us? It tells us that, first of all, as believers, God is our Father. He is the one who gave us the “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Then, God is the judge. He is the creator and ruler of all the earth and of everything else as well. He is our creator also, and sustains our very existence from moment to moment. He has actually set the times and places for our lives. We are not the products of random chance. (Acts 17:26) God decides all matters.

Also, God judges each man’s work impartially. “Each man” includes both those who are his children, us, and those who belong to the world, as we used to. What then is the significance to us of the fact that God judges our works impartially?

The significance of God’s impartiality is that he judges every man’s work, believers and unbelievers, by the same standard. He does not show favoritism to his children. Human fathers may tend to spoil their children and overlook disobedience. But our heavenly Father’s purpose for us is for us to be perfect as he is perfect—to be obedient to Jesus Christ (v2). Our heavenly Father will not spoil us. He will discipline us to be obedient. Because of this, we ought to live our lives as strangers—as not belonging to this world in any way—and in reverent fear.

Verses 18 and 19 say, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Verse 18 starts out with the word for. Peter is going to give us more reason to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear. Fear of punishment as the only reason for obedience to someone who is indifferent toward you is pretty burdensome. But we were redeemed from our empty way of life—our empty way of life that was bringing absolutely no glory to God, no benefit to our neighbors, and only utter destruction to ourselves. We were redeemed from it by the precious blood of Jesus, the perfect, flawless Lamb of God! God loves us. And because the one who holds the power of life and death over us loves us, we can rejoice!

According to verse 20, God chose Jesus as his sacrificial lamb before the creation of the world, but revealed him when he did for our sake—so that we could see and know God and know his love and mercy and salvation—so that we could have real life, not the empty way of life we had before we knew him. Because of Jesus—because God raised him from the dead and glorified him (v21)—we believe in God, that is we trust him. Our faith and hope are in God.

Aren’t your faith and hope in God? Peter talks a lot, in this first chapter of his letter, about the difference between our old way of life when we belonged to the world and our new way of life as God’s children. How great the difference is between “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” and “praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” in verse 7, and between “Eat, drink and be merry” and “the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls” in verse 9. Father, we praise you and thank you that you did so great a thing for us. Your ways are true and noble and right and pure and beautiful.

By the way, brothers and sisters, in today’s passage, Peter talked about God’s judging of man’s works impartially. You may want to ask what kind of work God considers good. Peter talks a lot about the kinds of works believers should do further on in this letter. But Jesus gave the answer in one sentence. When some of the people in the crowd around him asked, “What must we do to do the works that God requires,” he answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29)

Pray that we may know fully the truth of these verses. Pray, especially, that we may know that we were redeemed from the empty way of life that we once lived by the precious blood of Jesus. Pray also that we may learn what it means to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

Now let’s look at verses 22 through 25. Listen while I read them:

22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For,

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord stands forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25 –NIV)

Peter says that we have purified ourselves by obeying the truth. We have obeyed the truth and we are purified. Peter is writing to believers, and we are believers, so this definitely applies to us. But what does it mean that we have “purified ourselves by obeying the truth?” When I was reading this passage, I thought that I remembered that the phrase “obeying the truth” was used somewhere else in the New Testament, so I looked for it. Sure enough, it’s in Galatians 5:7. Galatians 5:7 says, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?”

In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul is trying to persuade his readers that salvation comes not through outward actions, rituals and the observing of rules, but through faith in Jesus Christ. He says that some false teachers had kept them from obeying the truth. And the results of this are just awful! Their joy and sacrificial love that they once had were gone. (Gal. 4:15) They were now biting and devouring each other, and were in danger of destroying each other (Gal. 5:15). While they had once been free in Christ, they were now becoming slaves again! How were the Galatians not obeying the truth?

Although Peter and Paul used different Greek words to express the idea of obedience, both words imply full acceptance of the truth and the action that goes with that acceptance. In rebuking the Galatians, Paul’s says the following: “You who are trying to be justified by law (that is, by rules) have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.” (Gal. 5:4,5) Obedience to the truth is accepting that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus himself is the truth. He is the way and the truth and the life. We have eternal life by accepting Jesus—by trusting him.

Although Paul has expressed it in a negative way, the teaching of Peter and Paul are the same. We are saved only through accepting Jesus Christ. There is no other way.

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.” The reason we have sincere love for each other is that we have trusted Jesus. The apostle John says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7) Conversely, we can conclude, anyone who has not been born of God, does not know God and is not able to sincerely love. Since we are now able to truly love one another, both John and Peter encourage us to do it even more! So let us love each other deeply from the heart!

Peter says, along with John, that the reason we can love sincerely is that we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Perishable seed is Adam. Imperishable is seed is Jesus Christ. He is the living and enduring word which became flesh and lived among us for a while. (John 1:14) When we accepted him, he gave us the right to become children of God—born not of natural descent, but born of God. (John 1:12,13) From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. (John 1:16) Amen and amen.

Now, just in case we have forgotten, Peter is going to remind us again of exactly what has happened to us. This was our former situation before we were born again: We were like grass, and our glory was like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall... But, Jesus, our Savior will never fail! He is from eternity to eternity—the same yesterday, today and forever. His words will never pass away. The word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the word that was preached to you.

One thing to think about and to pray about: Are we living by faith in Jesus Christ? Or are we living according to rules? The difference it makes in your life is vast. It’s the difference between love and joy and peace and everything good, noble pure and true on the one hand, and on the other hand, biting and devouring, envy and jealousy and every kind of strife and contention—everything false and miserable and evil. The apostle Paul was able to say, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” Can we say the same thing? Peter says that we have purified ourselves by obeying the truth. We have obeyed the truth and we are purified.

Now let’s look at chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. Listen while I read them:

1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:1-3 –NIV)

Immediately preceding these three verses, the Holy Spirit of God, speaking through the apostle Peter, has told us that, since we have been born again through the “living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23), we really have purified ourselves by obeying the truth and really do have sincere love for each other. (1:22) These things are facts for God’s elect, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. Now we must love one another deeply, from the heart.

The first verse of chapter 2 is conclusion of the matter: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” Just as we are now able to love each other deeply and from the heart, we are also able to rid ourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Don’t you want to do it? The reason you want to rid yourself of all these evil things is that you are born again! The Holy Spirit has put that desire in your heart!

Milk (v2) is all the nourishment that newborn babies need. It contains all the necessary nutrients for them to grow. The pure spiritual milk that we are told to crave is the living and enduring word of God. It contains everything that we need in order to grow up and become like Jesus—everything.

“Pure,” in the phrase “pure spiritual milk,” means not watered down or mixed with anything foreign. These days, the word of God frequently comes with all kinds of dilutants and contaminants. Many authors and speakers think that God has left some necessary thing out of his word. They think that they are wiser than he is, and can add what he left out—or maybe that he deliberately made his word incomplete and expected us to add something to it—or maybe that the word of God is too strong to be palatable and needs to be diluted. But the word of God is just exactly perfect for us so that we will grow up in salvation. When you read it and study it, meditate on it and talk about it, the Holy Spirit uses it to conform your thinking to the thinking of Christ. Your mind and heart are conformed to the mind and heart of Christ.

What men write and speak about the word of God (as I am doing now) can be helpful and encouraging, but you need to test everything to be sure that it is pure—to see whether or not it agrees with what God has written through the apostles and prophets—to see whether or not it agrees with the words of Jesus. But when you read the bible, you don’t need to test anything. It is the word of God and is pure and complete and perfect for your nourishment. It will certainly cause you to grow and become mature. Haven’t you tasted that Jesus is good? Peter says that you have. God says that you have.

We are all tested in many ways. (James 1:2) We are tested by the world and by the devil. We are tempted to give in to the “flesh” or “sinful nature.” The world and the devil try to teach us to act out of malice—that it is right and just to get revenge—that we even have an obligation to do it. God tells us to forgive, just as through the blood of Christ, he forgave us. The world and the devil teach us to deceive. They teach us that, in order to make anything go your way, it is necessary to manipulate people so as to get them to benefit you. Concerning deception, God says that all liars belong in the lake of fire.

The world and the devil say that you have to make yourself look better than you really are or no one will accept you, but Jesus said of the wicked, unfaithful servant in the parable (Matt. 24:50,51), “The master will come when he does not expect it and cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites (deceivers), where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (By the way, since God has already accepted you. You don’t really need anyone else to accept you.) The world and the devil entice you to envy anyone whom you think has something you need but can’t get. Jesus says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things (material needs) will be given to you as well.” (Matt. 6:33)

Without the word of God you would always give in to all the temptations of the world and the devil. It would hardly even be called giving in. For the most part, you wouldn’t even know any better. But with the word of God, even if you give in to a temptation, you know that you can come to God and confess your sin and that he will forgive you. God’s purpose for allowing us to be tested is to teach us to overcome. With the word of God, you will learn.

If you crave the word of God—if you crave Jesus—you will grow and become like him. You will become honest and open and sincere. You will trust God more and more to provide. You will begin to know that all that he has for you is good. You will learn not to ignore sins that you have committed, as though God didn’t see, or as though he would forget about them after a while, but to confess them and be cleansed completely through the blood of Jesus. Praise God for his great salvation!

Pray for us to crave and be nourished by the living and enduring word of God, and to know that we are being nourished, and to know that we are growing and ridding ourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind—and to remember that we have tasted that the Lord is good.

Praise the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, the sun, the moon and all the stars, who made the plants and all the living creatures and gave them life, who made us in his own image, male and female. Praise the Lord who is almighty and wise, righteous and just, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and mercy. Praise the Lord who sent his own Son, through whom he made all things, to become a man, Jesus, and to live among us for a while, to be free from sin even though he was tempted in every way just as we, and to die for our sin, the righteous for the unrighteous. Praise the Lord who raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand, far above all rule, dominion, power and authority, and every title that can be given, not only in this age, but in the age to come. Praise the Lord who is adopting us as his children through the blood of Jesus, so that we will be with him forever. Praise the Lord.

[Prayer]

[Pray that we may all set our hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed, and be holy as God is holy. I know we will be!

Pray, especially, that we may know that we were redeemed from the empty way of life that we once lived by the precious blood of Jesus. Pray also that we may learn what it means to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

Pray for us to crave and be nourished by the living and enduring word of God, and to know that we are being nourished, and to know that we are growing and ridding ourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind—and to remember that we have tasted that the Lord is good.]