The Call to Holy Living

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:2, 13-25

² God the Father chose you because of what he knew beforehand. He chose you through the Holy Spirit’s work of making you holy and because of the faithful obedience and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

May God’s grace and peace be multiplied to you.

¹³ Therefore, once you have your minds ready for action and you are thinking clearly, place your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. ¹⁴ Don’t be conformed to your former desires, those that shaped you when you were ignorant. But, as obedient children, ¹⁵ you must be holy in every aspect of your lives, just as the one who called you is holy. ¹⁶ It is written, You will be holy, because I am holy. ¹⁷ Since you call upon a Father who judges all people according to their actions without favoritism, you should conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your dwelling in a strange land. ¹⁸ Live in this way, knowing that you were not liberated by perishable things like silver or gold from the empty lifestyle you inherited from your ancestors. ¹⁹ Instead, you were liberated by the precious blood of Christ, like that of a flawless, spotless lamb. ²⁰ Christ was chosen before the creation of the world, but was only revealed at the end of time. This was done for you, ²¹ who through Christ are faithful to the God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So now, your faith and hope should rest in God.

²² As you set yourselves apart by your obedience to the truth so that you might have genuine affection for your fellow believers, love each other deeply and earnestly. ²³ Do this because you have been given new birth—not from the type of seed that decays but from seed that doesn’t. This seed is God’s life-giving and enduring word. ²⁴ Thus,

All human life on the earth is like grass,
    and all human glory is like a flower in a field.
The grass dries up and its flower falls off,
²⁵         but the Lord’s word endures forever.

This is the word that was proclaimed to you as good news.

Questions

1. What does Peter mean that God is holy?
2. What does Peter mean that God has chosen us to make us holy? How are we holy?
3. What is the relationship between holiness and obedience?
4. How does our being holy relate to Jesus’ work?

Background

Related Scriptures: Leviticus 19:2; Zechariah 14:116-21; Mark 1:24; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Holiness means to be set apart from the ordinary or distinct. It is the quality of having a special purpose. In the Bible God is depicted as perfectly holy doing everything in a way that by human standards is set apart or distinct. God’s holiness is seen like a magnetic or electric field, one has to align with that field in order to stay in the presence of God.

The holiness codes, like Leviticus, are meant to provide ways for people to live that allow them to align themselves with God’s holiness, which allows them to live in God’s presence.

When we think of the Holy Spirit, we should remember this is God’s Spirit helping us become holy.

Reflection

It seems the label “holy” is difficult for many to even consider in our society. I am sure that this dates to the last century when the word was a catchphrase for Christians and there was a strong negative reaction to that movement of “holy rollers”. This negative connotation of the term holy comes from its association with keeping a very strict set of laws; many people feel trapped by a structure that they can never measure up to. But this is not the nature of holiness, holiness is not rejecting specific indulgences as vices and ascetically holding to specific practices as virtues. Holiness is about seeing who God truly is and trying to be more like God. Holiness begins with understanding that God’s desires for this world, ways of relating to this world, and very nature run contrary to our own in several key ways.

Holiness at its most basic level is simply something that is separated and often separated for a specific reason and purpose. God is said to be “holy” because God is utterly distinct from creation and separate from creation in a variety of ways, one of which is in goodness. God is good and always works for the good of creation and so God is holy. Humanity is profane (common) because we lack this essential goodness. Thus, the Bible and specifically books like Leviticus provide us with instructions on how to be good or holy, that is separated from our normal ways od living. Peter picks up on this message and emphasizes the purpose of the Christian faith is to be holy like God. If we use the imagery of an electric field, holiness is the state of having no resistance to the charge around us. Holiness is living in the goodness of God to such a degree that we work perfectly with God’s intent. In 1:2, Peter points out that God has called the church to this state where we do not have any resistance toward what God wants to be done in the world, thus we have fundamentally separated ourselves from what we consider normal human behavior to act more like God.

To this end God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, working in us to transform us to be more holy, more separate, more in tune with God. We work with God’s Spirit to transform ourselves to be better able to live in God’s presence without the resistance our world so often has. This is where the rub comes for so many, they think the Holy Spirit is meant to choke the fun out of life and force us into a monkish lifestyle of strict discipline and little if any enjoyment. The truth is that the work of the Holy Spirit is not to push us toward rule keeping and strict and serious lives, the Holy Spirit’s work is to help us enjoy this world from God’s perspective. Now, obviously, there are some activities and choices that inherently cut against the grain of God’s design and desire for the world, but The Holy Spirit is generally working with us to enjoy the world for God’s sake rather than our own. Adopting a holy lifestyle is not about what we give up, it is about how we approach the world. Holiness is about living our lives, doing the things we have done from a perspective of giving glory to God, and how do we give God glory, by demonstrating our genuine love and affection for others. This is what Peter tells us, we are holy to the extent that we can enjoy life in ways that lead to love and affection. We sometimes think that because God does not live on earth the way we do, holiness means to escape earth entirely, however nothing could be further from the truth. Holiness is about living here as God intended, separated from all of the ways of life that impede God’s desires. It is seeking to live in unity with God in such a way as there is no friction between us and God or us and the world. This is why the Bible stresses the “laws” they are meant to help us reflect on our own lives and how we are representing God in the world. These laws are meant to help us ask if we are treating others well and reducing the resistance we have to God’s ways of living. Our goal is nothing less than separating ourselves from our old perspectives on life and continuing to live in the world the way God desires. May we continue to work with God’s Holy Spirit to learn how to live out our true calling to separate ourselves from our old desires and join in the world God designed.