Last night a speaker at a convention talked to Christian leaders about outreach. He offered a simple strategy about being the right person with the right message and going about it in the right way with some prior planning. These are not his words, but mine.
His message and my paraphrase illustrate that there are many ways to say the same thing. Anyone who has raised children knows that sometimes this must be done in order to be heard and understood, never mind obeyed.
I read the passage that I am studying in two versions this morning, the Contemporary English Version and the New American Standard Bible. Here is what they say:
Behave like obedient children. Don’t let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be. Always live as God’s holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy. (1 Peter 1:14–15, CEV)
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. (1 Peter 1:14–15, NASB)
The phrase that caught my attention is about God’s selection. One version calls it choosing, the other a calling. One implies being picked; the other implies the necessity of a response.
My Greek dictionary gives another slant to this word. It means to call, to call aloud, or utter in a loud voice. It can also mean to invite, or to name by name, or even to give a name to, or receive the name of, or receive as a name, or to be called, i.e., to bear a name or title (among men), or to salute one by name.
After reading that, I had the sense that these verses were telling me that God who is holy calls me or names me by a new designation. Instead of being a sinner (even though I still sin), He names me a holy person. Because I am holy and set apart by His invitation and His naming of me, I am to act like it. This is not just because of what He has made of me though; I am to be holy because He is holy.
This might seem like a lot of words. Others might hear God more clearly if He said this in a different way, but I hear this one. I’ve been given an identity and a name. I am a set apart person, identified by God as His child and called holy. I am to ignore anything from my old sinful nature that bids me follow it. Instead of that old way of life, I’m to live up to what God says I am.
I’ve had nearly forty years of practice trying to fit into this new role and new identity. Each day I’m reminded one way or another that I am not the person that I once was and that I need to cast off the old and put on the new. No matter how God says it, the marvel of it never becomes ho-hum. I’m overjoyed to be chosen, called, named, saluted, given a title, called holy. Belonging to Jesus is simply a rush.
Some Christians started their walk with Jesus as small children. Others, like myself, did so when we were adults. The verse that I’ve been studying manages to cover both ends of that spectrum.
Behave like obedient children. Don’t let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be. Always live as God’s holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy. (1 Peter 1:14–15)
The person who has known Christ from childhood knows what “obedient children” means. They have been there and struggled with doing what they were told — just as any other child. The difference is that Christ makes it possible to obey from the heart. The obedient children are not “standing up on the inside.” This submission to God is part of what it means to be holy, even for children.
The person who is saved as an adult knows what life “controlled by your desires” means. We have been there, but instead of struggling with it, we were ignorant of our motivations — at least until Christ came and revealed our sinful selfishness to us. Then began the struggle. Our knowledge of what it means to behave in godly ways comes later in life, but for me and for the person who became a believer at five or six years old, the command is the same. We are both to live as God’s holy people should live.
Holiness sounds like pie in the sky. Is it even possible? God must think so because He does not ask us to do more than we are able — in the power of the Holy Spirit. As I understand it, holiness is being different from what I once was. It is being like Jesus. To do that, Jesus must be in control of my life (that is the obedience part) and I must forsake all my own desires.
Holiness could be an extremely pious life, but Jesus lived and walked among us as an ordinary man in many ways. He ate with sinners. He went to weddings. He cried at a grave side. He cared about those who suffered. His own brothers thought He was insane. No one ever accused Him of being overtly pious or what we might call “holier than thou.” He was simply good, and did the will of God with all His heart.
According to this verse, holiness begins at the decision making level. Each day I am faced with choices. When I choose my desires, I forsake holiness. When I obey God, I embrace holiness. This might involve actions so ordinary that no one realizes the inner choice that I made.
At the same time, whatever I decide to do in the name of Jesus and at His bidding will have eternal importance. I might not see or understand what that is, but in the plan of God, my choice to abandon sin and be holy is part of what He is doing. Because He considers them important, this adds excitement to even the small things of life.
Today’s devotional reading asks, “Have you ever wanted to take time off from being obedient to God?”
If this question means giving up godly attitudes and disciplines such as diligence and perseverance, then it happens nearly every day when I am tired or my chores are tedious or even boring. I slack off and put my feet up when I know I should keep going.
If the question is about time off from obeying specific commands such as, “submit to those in authority over you” then I’m guilty every time I drive even one km an hour over the speed limit, or get annoyed because I have to pay taxes or yield at a stoplight.
Yet this question seems to go beyond these times of temptation to a general attitude of just stopping, just deciding not to do anything God asks, more of a total vacation. That happened to me once.
I had been battling a particular sin for a long time. It was a sin of attitude, not action so not very discernable to others. Nevertheless, it was keeping me from growing in Christlikeness, and preventing my life from fruitful service. Although I knew these things and was trying to stop thinking the way I’d been thinking, at the same time I didn’t grasp the real problem — I really didn’t want to give up my bad attitude. Today’s verse may have been in my radar, but I didn’t heed it. I wanted to be holy, but I didn’t want to be holy.
Behave like obedient children. Don’t let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be. Always live as God’s holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy. (1 Peter 1:14–15)
Instead, I decided that my only solution was to stop being a Christian. That notion went totally against my theology. I was convinced then, and still am, that a person who has been born again, regenerated and placed in the family of God, cannot be ‘unborn’ and walk away. Christ lives in me. I cannot shove Him out.
However, at that time, I wanted to quit. Being a Christian was too difficult. This battle had worn me out. I was fed up. There seemed no answers and no way out except to cease. I remember feeling very black and very much in darkness, still not realizing the reasons why I could not win this battle, but I made my decision.
That same day, I walked past a bookcase and one of my books was lying on top. I picked it up to put it away, but paused and flipped it open. My eyes fell on a verse of Scripture and with that verse, I felt like God smacked me on the side of the head and turned me around. It said,
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)
I suppose that God could have used any verse, but this one offered me two truths that I needed to hear. One was that all the times I had defiled my own conscience with this bad attitude did not mean I was hopelessly ruined. The blood of Christ cleanses sin, large and small, many or few. Compared to the fact that His blood covers the sin of the world, the sin of all time, what is my sin? It is nothing for Him to forgive and cleanse, nothing at all in His sight. I felt ashamed and humbled.
The second truth was that my battle was wheel-spinning, a waste of time and effort for nothing more than a dead work. This attitude that I could not let go of had no eternal value. It was worthless to God and worthless to me, a dead work, the product of my old, sinful nature. It was useless and fit for fire. Why hang on to something so foolishly vain and empty?
In that hour when I had decided I could not be Christian any longer, God grabbed hold of me and gave me victory. He showed me the folly of my sin, the futility of my “I wants” and then showed me once again that I am not my own Savior — He is. I cannot defeat sin and the sooner I admit it, the better.
I learned so much that day. For one thing, God showed me that my admission of helplessness does not have to be so drastic. I don’t need to give up and quit walking with Him; I just need to give up and quit trying to save myself.
Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting my four great-grandchildren. I know that I’m too young to be a great-grandmother. Nevertheless, two of my grandchildren have little ones of their own. It was nice to see them.
It was also interesting to observe their personalities. One is less than two weeks old, but obviously male and alert to his surroundings. The oldest is three with a large vocabulary, and hugs everyone. The two in the middle are both blonde and blue eyed, but not at all alike. One is contented and methodical, a real thinker. The other is a sharp-eyed and smiling imp. I enjoyed watching them interact with mom and dad, sometimes testing their limits and always learning obedience.
Today’s devotional verse is about obedience at a different level. It is for children, but the children of God — who can be adults. These children are those transformed by His Spirit and called to be like Jesus.
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. (1 Peter 1:14–15)
Because of our sin nature, no one has to teach any of us how to be bad. Children already know how to disobey and misbehave. Instead they must be taught obedience. This is a challenge for parents and important for the child’s safety and growth.
For the child of God, learning obedience is vital to keep us safe too. It is also part of our spiritual growth, since our destiny is to be like our Savior. He was obedient and so must we be obedient. However, for us the leaving aside sin and doing as God says is one thing; being called to holiness lifts the bar.
I’ve never found a good definition of holy. Some say it simply means “other than” in that God is higher and more than we can imagine or describe. He is unlimited love and goodness, totally and completely without sin, light that has no darkness. My dictionary says that holy is moral and spiritual excellence. That means that He is calling me to a very high standard.
When I think of holiness as excellence in all things moral and spiritual, I know that I fall short. Without the Spirit of God living in me, and without the imputed character and holiness of Jesus Christ, there is no hope.
When I think of unlimited love and goodness, and those other high degrees of measuring God, I also feel small and inadequate. Who can be like God? Only with God living in me, only with Christ giving me His nature, only with God seeing me through that filter, then there is a sense of it, but this holiness is not mine. Holiness truly belongs to God alone.
When I think of holiness as “other than” or being better than what I was before He saved me, then I can see myself (only because of Christ) as on the bottom rung of a very tall ladder. If I compare myself with those evil desires that I had before Christ came into my life, I know that He has changed me. When I look back, there has been change and progress, a glimmer of hope. However, when I look at the goal, the target described in this verse, I cannot imagine it. How can God ask such a thing?
Yet He asks it, which implies that perhaps holiness is possible. I know that I will not be like Jesus until I see Him face to face, but this verse says that I can do better, that I can climb up a rung or two. Refusing sin and insisting on God’s high standards for my life are hard enough to muster, but the Holy Spirit is at work, urging more.
Besides His outreached hand, I’m amazed that God assumes this is possible. I’m to stop looking at myself. I’m not to give up simply because His target seems completely out of reach. He wants me to press on — like a little one learning to walk. Like a dad with a little one, He holds out His hand and urges me to take the next step forward.
Yesterday’s message from the pulpit was a simple one. The pastor used 1 Peter 2:1-3 to remind us how we should grow in the new life God has given us.
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:1–3)
His three points spoke to me. The first is that I need to put away sin. I’ve been a Christian for almost forty years, and by now one might think this is a baby step that I’ve already made, but sin is a deeply entrenched human condition. Yes, Jesus died for it, and I am forgiven. Its penalty is taken care of, but its presence must be overcome. Salvation begins with forgiveness but it continues with a fight.
This list of sins is not comprehensive, but close. Malice is any kind of evil; deceit is hiding truth. Hypocrisy is holding a double-standard and having a lack of integrity. Envy is wanting what others have, and slander is backbiting, speaking evil about others behind their backs. As I listened to these descriptions, the Holy Spirit reminded me of violations, perhaps small in the eyes of some, but God does not measure sin by degree. I’m either innocent or guilty — and growth is hindered by guilt.
The second point was about my innermost desires. A person who is born again, or given new life through faith in Jesus Christ is like a baby, and babies crave milk, usually every few hours. In this case, the milk referred to is the Word of God. Am I like that with the Bible? Do I crave it as my necessary food? I know that I love to read it, but yesterday I thought about all the time that I feed on other stuff — that which does nothing for my spiritual growth and might even hinder it. Even though I don’t sit in front of the TV every night, the OFF button on the television set did come to mind. So did my computer.
The third point was about tasting the goodness of God. After so many years of believing in Christ, the goodness of God is like a feast. The pastor said that far too many Christians walk around as if God is dealing them blows. They have sad faces, are grumpy and complaining, and generally consider many of their life experiences a bit of a raw deal.
Early in my Christian life God showed me that He uses all things for my good, all things to transform me into the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). Because of that, I’ve learned that there is purpose in the tough times. This helps me with acceptance of trials and with looking for what God wants from me in them.
But I still complain. I complain about my duties. I complain about interruptions and trivia. I get annoyed when my plans are thwarted. I’ve tried to practice self-sacrifice, but at my control. When someone else needs something and I am busy . . . well, I grumble.
This phrase, “taste and see” reminded me that even in these “little” annoyances, God is still good. I’m to taste that goodness instead of letting my selfishness control my responses. I also need to remember that Satan’s original lie hinted that God really didn’t want good for His people. He still uses that lie to mess up the lives of millions. God is good. I’m to taste that truth, even feast on it every day, especially when tempted with those small annoyances.
This morning’s devotional reading is also from 1 Peter. It puts an exclamation mark on the sermon, first by reminding me that I’m still a child and not a grownup. I need the three points of that sermon, no matter how long I’ve been walking with Jesus.
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. (1 Peter 1:14–15)
Sometimes I joke that I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I do know. I want to be like Jesus. To get there, I need the Word of God as my guide book. I also need to put away all sin, knowing this is a lifetime task. When I think I have arrived, a good drink of spiritual milk will show me that I still need to grow. God’s Word also reminds me of the goodness of God and His holiness, the target for my life.
To live is Christ means constant diligence. Sin’s presence will vanish when I step into glory, but for now, I must battle it. I cannot do that without the Word of God and without continual awareness of God’s goodness. He has given me everything necessary to prevent my spiritual life from becoming stagnant, but I’m still a babe and I still need to desire growth and keep growing.
