A Word in Season: Called to Holiness (1 Peter 1:15–16)

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As Christians, we are called to a life of distinctive godliness, or holiness.

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In 1 Peter chapter 1, the Apostle writes, Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written,

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Be holy, for I am holy. The will of God is for our sanctification.

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We are brought to him, by him, for him, in order that we might be like him.

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As he who called us is holy, we also are to be holy in all our conduct, all our relations to God in Christ Jesus, with him as the

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God and Father of our Lord, with the Holy Spirit as the one who dwells within us.

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All of these things ought to bind us cheerfully and willingly to a lifelong and increasing pursuit of true godliness.

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God who called us is holy. He is high and lifted up. He is separate from sinners.

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There is no moral stain in him. There is no hint of any imperfection.

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He is the one who dwells in light, unapproachable and full of glory. He is utterly against and apart from sin.

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And in the same way as God is holy, so also we ought to be holy in all our conduct.

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You'll notice the universal nature of that requirement. There's no part of our lives which is not to be touched and transformed by the fact that we now belong to a holy

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God, that we are to be his obedient children, turning our back upon the previous way of life and now pursuing holiness in the fear of the

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Lord. We are to be holy in everything, our thoughts, our words and our deeds.

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Whatever pushes us away from God and toward transgression and iniquity and sin, that is to be resisted.

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Whatever delights and pleases the Lord God, that is to be embraced and cultivated and pursued.

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And every aspect of our life is to be subject to this overwhelming and overarching desire that there's no room as it were in the house where the

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Holy Spirit is kept out, that there's no aspect of life, public or private, individual or family, church or out in the world at large, which is not to be subject to this great requirement.

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Why? Because it's written, be holy for I am holy.

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The simple fact is that this is who God is and what God has said and therefore we have no objection to it.

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We're rather, if Christians, primed for it. The duty that is imposed is one in which we delight and we expect to find delight in doing this duty.

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We're not going to be selective in our obedience. We're not going to allow God to be our father in one aspect of life but not in another.

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We're not going to be holy in public but then sinful and indulgent in private or even vice versa.

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There's going to be an absolute consistency in all of our approach and we will do it because God calls us to do it and independence upon the

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God who calls us to be holy as he is holy. This is truly the desire of a

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Christian's heart. These are the things in which we delight and for which we long and it means then that we need to start asking about the different areas of our conduct in this world and asking, am

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I putting sin to death and cultivating holiness at this point, at this point, at this point?

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If there's no appetite for holiness then it says that we're not really belonging to God for those who love him keep his commandments.

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If there's no attainment at any point in holiness it's because we're doing it in our own strength and not independence upon the spirit of Christ.

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If we try and excuse ourselves from holiness it shows that we do not know

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God however much we might profess to do so. So if we are Christians let us pursue holiness according to God's word because he who has called us is holy and so we ought to be holy in all our conduct.