As we’ve studied 1 Peter, I’m curious if you’ve noticed a recurring theme?
In 1 Peter 2:9-10 (CSB), Peter says of the Church “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
When God called us into His Kingdom, it had nothing to do with the color of your skin or race, some “royal” status, or some geographical marker. It has everything to do with this one matter: Are we willing to be God’s treasured possession? Are we willing to belong exclusively to Christ? Are we willing to stop walking in darkness and come into God’s marvelous light? Are we willing to become an entirely new, unique race of people, a royal priesthood that does God’s business on earth, a holy nation (people) scattered among unholy nations (people)?
God is willing to shower us with all the grace and mercy we could possible need, to become his men and women (people) in this world!
1 Peter 2:4-5 (CSB), “As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God—you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices accepts to God through Jesus Christ.”
There it is again. As we come to God, he is building us into a specific kind of people. We’re being built into a “holy” priesthood, a kind of “holy” nation.
- 1 Peter 1:22, (CSB) Peter says we’re purifying ourselves by obedience to the truth, so that we show “sincere” and “constant” and “pure” brotherly love for each other!
- 1 Peter 1:15-16 (CSB), “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.”
- 1 Peter 1:17 (CSB), “… conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers.”
- 1 Peter 1:2 (CSB), God has chosen us to be “sanctified by the Holy Spirit”, and “to be obedient.”
When I was a teenager, we sang this one chorus ad nauseum: “Holiness, Holiness. . . is what I long for. Holiness is what I need. Holiness, holiness, is what you want from me. . . so take my heart and mold it, take my mind and transform it, take my will and conform it, to yours, to yours, Oh Lord!”
But is holiness the cry of the Church today? Is holiness the sincere cry of your heart? Does holiness still matter? In 1 Peter 2:11-17 (Week 7), Peter outlines a rationale for the personal and corporate holiness of the Church.
First, Holiness matters for the good of your soul.
At the heart of holiness is “soul care.” 1 Peter 2:11 (CSB) says, “Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.” May I suggest, that those who urge you to abstain from sinful desires, are your truest and dearest friends? And those who don’t, aren’t really “so dear” after all?
Look at what Peter says here! Dear friends, “abstain” from the sinful desires that wage war against our soul. We live in day when we treat our desires as prophecy. We treat our desires as divine imperatives. “This desire within me, this compulsion, it’s so powerful, it must be of God!” Not so fast.
James 1:14-15 (CSB) says, “But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.” Why would I want to unleash something within me that spawns death? Instead, James 1:16, there is this “good and perfect gift” that “comes down from the Father of lights who does not change like the shifting shadows of darkness”! I wonder what it is?
James 1:17 (CSB) says, “Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” Ah, holiness is all about receiving God’s word with humility! The Word is able to save your soul! Earlier, Peter commended the power of the word. Obedience to the Word purifies!
But what are some sinful desires that “wage war” against your soul?
1 Peter 2:2-3 (CSB) speaks of the soul-killing attitudes we harbor against other people. “Rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up in to your salvation.”
1 Peter 4:3 (CSB) speaks of the soul-killing behaviors we indulge in by ourselves or with others. “For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.”
These are hardly comprehensive lists. There are hundreds of unholy attitudes and behaviors that daily wage war on our souls.
1 Peter 5:8 (CSB) says, “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.”
By the way holiness doesn’t just matter for the good of our soul.
Holiness matters for the good of lost souls.
1 Peter 2:12 (CSB) says, “Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.”
What a terrifying thought to realize not just that you and I have toxic attitudes and behaviors, but to realize how those same soul-killing attitudes and behaviors have begun infecting others. It’s like this COVID-19 virus (or any other virus). It’s one thing for us to contend with a virus, but quite another to contend with infecting those around us.
Conduct yourselves honorably among the “Gentiles.” These believers in 1 Peter were “ethnically”, biologically, racially Gentiles. But spiritually, they were becoming a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, they were becoming holy as God is holy. Christ’s distinctive love and distinctive character and distinctive holiness was infecting and transforming them. And Peter says they ought to keep on living in such a way, that when Christ appears in the sky, it will be evident to all who they’ve really been all along!
Listen, we Christians have entered a new era. To a certain extent, you as a Christian have always been insulted, teased, harassed, or slandered for obeying Jesus.
1 Peter 4:4 (CSB), “[People] are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living—and they slander you.”
But now the character of our times has changed. If you preach the word, prescribe the word, and especially obey the word. . . you are an “evildoer.” There is a militant secularism that demands our allegiance, our conformity, to godless norms, ideas, and ideologies. You aren’t just weird, you are an “evildoer.” You’re not to be tolerated, as a Christian, you are to be resisted, cancelled, driven out.
The end of all things is near. That’s what Peter says in 1 Peter 4:7. Stay alert, stay sober-minded, keep praying. Maintain constant love. Share your lives and homes with each other. Use your gifts to serve. Reflect God’s multifaceted grace. Speak as speaking God’s words. Serve with the strength God provides. Keep on glorifying Christ in everything. Don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal you face, as if something strange were happening. Don’t suffer as an actual murderer, thief, evildoer, or meddler! Know that the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Don’t be ashamed. The time has come for judgement to begin first for us, but then those who disobey the gospel. You keep entrusting yourself to your faithful creator. You keep on doing what is good. Be salt and light…
Holiness matters for the good of our soul (Abstain from sinful desires), it matters for the good of other’s souls (Live Honorably). Consider how…
Third, Holiness matters for the good of authority.
1 Peter 2:13-15 (CSB), “Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.”
Peter very intentionally mentions government here. As Christians, we’ve nurtured this hope that come November, some human authority (that some supreme authority) will rise up, and come do our bidding, and carry our water for us as Christians, as the Church, as the Kingdom of God. I read this book about the “History of Evangelicalism in America.” With the exception of slavery, every time Christians have looked to government to advance some “holy agenda” (i.e. prohibition of alcohol, drugs, gambling, abortion, personal responsibility, same sex marriage, school prayer, etc.) … its been a total train wreck. Christians are looking to Trump or Biden, just like they looked to Obama and Bushes and Clintons.
Here is the reality. The Emperor, the Government, Politics. . . that’s all downstream. God has instituted governing authorities only to enforce the general good and well-being of people. To punish evil, to praise good. And that’s about it, and human authorities even get that wrong all the time. Government will always reflect the character of the common majority, it’s downstream. We have about the character of government the people around us have come to deserve.
But look what Peter says. 1 Peter 2:15 (CSB), “For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.”
We want to elect a top-down miracle, but the miracle swells from the bottom up. How did Jesus overthrow Herod, usurp Caesar, and overthrow the Roman Empire? Well, he established a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. He planted his Word deep in their hearts. He sent His Holy Spirit to sanctify them. He showered them with grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy to help them grow up in their salvation. Jesus beat Peter’s sword into a plow sheer. He taught Peter that leading an insurrection would achieve nothing… but cultivating men’s hearts, and sowing the seed of Word of God there, would transform the globe.
A holy Church, a holy people, a thriving Kingdom of God is the hope of nations. Peter’s advice is that we SUBMIT to every human authority. Go read the Psalms, or the Proverbs, or Prophets. The Holy Ones reign with Christ. It’s not a matter of if, but when, the Kingdom of God will prevail. On the day of Christ every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. God’s Holy Kingdom is always rising and will continue prevailing.
Last, Holiness matters for the glory of God.
1 Peter 2:16-17 (CSB), “Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves. Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
Speaking of government, the problem today is that Christians are living by the moral and ethical standards of their political parties and affiliations. We imagine that just because human authority legitimizes and legalizes an attitude or behavior we’re in the right. We can use our freedom (our rights, our political justifications) as a cover-up for evil.
But let me remind you that we are God’s slaves. Though we live among an increasingly permissive culture that is throwing off all moral restraint… we’re still bound by a higher authority, Christ Jesus is the Lord of His Church, we have offered ourselves as slaves and instruments of righteousness.
Our guiding ethic is whether in word or deed, we do all to the glory of the one who said, “Be Holy, Because I am Holy.”