AP

First Peter Studies: Suffering and Glory (3)

The Call to Holiness                                                                                     1 Peter 1:13-21

Knowing that a heavenly inheritance awaits the believers, even when they are experiencing suffering, they are to be prepared for action. Having reminded them (1:1) that they are strangers in a pagan society, they should always be ready to move, just as the Israelites had to before the Passover: ^“This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover” (Exodus 12:11).

The KJV says: “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” Peter is here talking about a mental readiness. If the purpose of tucking a cloak into a belt was to put out of the way anything that would hinder movement, preparing our minds for action means putting out of our minds all that would impede the progress of the Christian’s sanctification, such as worry, fear, jealousy, hate, unforgiveness, and impurity. A mind filled with these negative attitudes prevents the Holy Spirit from using the mental faculties of the Christian in the most efficient manner. A mind cleared of negative attitudes is not a mind devoid of an appreciation of the seriousness of life and its responsibilities, but a mind not frozen by worry or fear, a mind ready to obey the admonitions that follow. We need a renewed mind (Romans 12:1-2).

The first admonition is to be self-controlled, sober, calm and collected in spirit, temperate, dispassionate, and circumspect. The mind is to be self-controlled, able to see things without the distortion caused by worry, fear, and related attitudes. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23).

The second admonition is to perfectly hope, without doubt. Again, we are to set our hope fully on the grace to be given when Jesus Christ is revealed. The grace will be given in the future, but it is already on the way. We were justified when we believed, we are being sanctified during our earthly life. We will be glorified when Jesus returns; our bodies will be transformed into glorious bodies. Our past, present, and future all give us perfect hope.

The third admonition is to not conform to the evil desires we had in the past. How? As obedient children. God is our Father in Christ; as his children we owe him obedience. Just as children inherit the nature of their parents, so a child of God is made a partaker of the divine nature. This nature impels us to obey. It is natural for the child of God to obey him. Our behaviour should be a true expression of our status as a child of God.

Next comes the command to be holy (literally: to become holy). This results from being obedient children. The Son of God was known as “The Holy One” by the demons cast out by Jesus (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34). Peter, talking to the crowd after the healing of the beggar (Acts 3:14), called Jesus “The Holy One.” John writes to believers, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth” (1 John 2:20). Those who formerly were controlled by evil cravings have entered into a new state of being, of inward holiness, because the Holy Spirit lives in their hearts. This inward holiness comes to expression in the lives of Christians.

The word for ‘holy’ means ‘set apart.’ A holy person is set apart from sin to righteousness. It has the idea of separation. While we do live next to and among unbelievers, Paul warns us: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). We should not bind ourselves to unbelievers. This verse is usually applied to marriage but can be apt in other situations as well.

In verse 16, ‘it is written’ is in the perfect tense. In Greek this indicates a past completed action having present results. Peter was quoting from Leviticus 11:44, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” Moses wrote this, probably on clay tablets at about 1500 BC. At the time of writing (AD 60), Peter spoke of Moses’ words as still on record, the eternal, unchanging Word of God. Our Lord used the same expression (“It is written”) in Matthew 4 when countering Satan’s temptations. The I in “I am Holy” is emphatic (ego). It is “I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am holy.”

The Cost of Redemption

Verse 17 describes the relationship between God and the believer (Father-Child) and the one between believers and their neighbours (Strangers-Pagans). These relationships require the believers to live in ‘reverent fear.’ Because we can pray to God as Father, we know that he will care for us and love us. Peter describes God as one “who judges each man’s work impartially.” That means that outward appearance, wealth, culture, social position, family background, education, beauty, intellect, all the things that sway people’s opinions, do not count with God when it comes to appraising a person’s character or worthiness.

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). God’s impartiality is an honest appraisal of things, while his heart is always with his children and goes out to them in a spirit of love. The Father judges the believers, not in the sense of condemnation, but to put them to the test in order to sanction or approve the good that he finds in them. God is looking to find good works in the believers, those that are inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Christians are to live their lives ‘in reverent fear.’ They live in a place that is not their ultimate, heavenly home. They live alongside unbelievers who are always looking to find fault with God’s people. Our testimony should be clear, not muddied by unholy living. We should live circumspectly so as not to bring dishonour to our God and Saviour.

Verses 18 and 19 give the reason for the call to holiness: we were redeemed, that is, we were set free by the payment of a ransom. This payment was not of gold or silver, as might be used to free a slave from bondage but was the ‘precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.’ Peter reminds us of the OT offerings of ‘a lamb without defect’ to be repeated over and over again, whereas Christ’s offering of himself once for all was sufficient: “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself” (Hebrews 7:27).

John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus early on as the Lamb of God. “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) It is the blood of the Lamb of God that redeems us and helps us overcome the evil one. “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11).

Verse 20. Christ was chosen, foreordained before the world, the cosmos, the whole universe, was created. The Lord Jesus had been foreordained to be the Saviour of lost sinners, and the saints have been foreordained to become the recipients of the salvation that Jesus would procure for lost sinners at the cross.  “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4). Christ was revealed by becoming a human being, so that we could see him and believe in him. The mystery of the incarnation is for our benefit.

Verse 21. The recipients of salvation are the believers who know that God raised Christ from among the dead (not from death as a state of non-being, but from among other dead people, plural). This belief in God of which Peter speaks, is not a mental acceptance of the fact of his existence, but a heart-based faith in the God who saves sinners in answer to their faith in the resurrected Lord Jesus who died for them.

Questions:

In what ways does Peter’s teaching imply the development of a distinctive Christian culture or sub-culture?

What does it mean to be holy in public life – for example, as citizens?

– Alida Sewell