1 Peter 1:13–17

The apostle now insists on the effect all this is to have on practical life. The loins of the mind are to be girt up by the truth — the common figure for the activity called for from us, the result of a mind set on things unseen. The result is sobriety about the present. The rosy colour drains from the things around us, as it must when the glory is revealed and enjoyed.

The practical life of the Christian is to be affected by what lies ahead, as also by what he has already been brought into by the present grace of God.

The opening clause clearly points back to their forefathers at the first passover. "Thus shall you eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand." Could any words or actions give a more living picture? Here is a people sheltered from God's judgment, leaving the house of slavery in haste for a land flowing with milk and honey. … When people worked hard, they tucked up their garments instead of letting them hang loose, so the job could be done without anything in the way. So He would now have our hearts engaged, without wandering affections or distraction of mind.

Just as the pilgrim, the runner, has to gird up the loins of his body, so we must gird up the loins of our mind. And I would like to say that the thing for a pilgrim to be clear about is not first of all his walk, but his heart. It is the pilgrim heart that makes the pilgrim walk. If my heart and mind are girded up, then my feet will be in the right path, no question.

"Being sober" is our continuous duty. The picture, as everyone admits, comes from keeping clear of all drunkenness. For the Christian that means avoiding everything likely to excite the flesh or the spirit… The call in verse 13 rests on redemption we know as our own portion. We travel through a wilderness world, and our expectation should match what God has already given us in Christ.

The Christian is also to be sober in his judgment about all that is going on in this world, not taken in by people's efforts to bring in a millennium without Christ.

"To the end," as older translations put it and as many still take it, falls short of what the adverb means… Translators probably shrank from linking perfection with a hope that so often wavers, and may also be vague and weak.

Notice that the New Testament sense of hope is never uncertainty. It is certainty that is unripe or delayed. So confidence marks it as much as expectation… The world has its hopes, but they are so soaked in uncertainty that the word hope now means almost the same as doubt.

The grace to come is so blessed in itself, and so good even now for the soul, that he tells the saints to "hope perfectly"… The Spirit's aim seems to be to show that grace in its power, grandeur and blessedness. Then we see the coming glory as part of the grace we have known in Christ's death and resurrection for our souls, with the rest we await for our bodies… Perhaps none of Peter's readers hoped as surely for the grace still to come as for the grace already shown. But this scripture invites that hope, and urges it. Let us treat every shortfall in hope as a wrong done to His grace and truth.

Peter is not speaking here of Christ's coming for His saints. He means His later revelation in glory, when His grace will shine out marvellously in His own.

The Christian is marked out as a child of obedience. That is far stronger than the "obedient children" of the Authorized Version. That same version rightly calls people in their unchanged state the children — or rather sons — of disobedience (Eph. 2:2; Col. 3:6). Fallen nature has a settled bent to disobey God. But now the opposite is true: when the Spirit sanctifies us, He sanctifies us for obedience — childlike obedience, seen in its perfection in our Lord Jesus.

We are called to obedience. It may be a hard lesson to learn, but we are "children of obedience," and so we are called to walk that way always. No one could call Israel obedient, yet the apostle describes the believer as one of the "children of obedience." The law had no power to create this character. Yet to obey is the chief duty of a Christian — the very heart of Christianity.

Legal obedience is one thing. The obedience that grace commands and produces is quite another. The first means carrying out a required duty, so as to live and stay in God's favour. The second rests on what God has done: He has worked a deliverance, set up a new relationship, produced a new nature — and obedience is the happy fruit of it. That obedience is not merely a servant's toward a master. It is a son's toward a father, taking its character from the obedience of Christ.

They might have slipped into the false idea that all direction was gone because the law was gone... But Christ set them free from law only to lead them into a steady obedience that goes far deeper and reaches much further... The Christian denies his Master and his own standing if he claims to be independent of His authority and His word. The more he knows his privileges, the greater his duty to obey.

If someone doubts his relationship to God, or if other people doubt him, the Spirit uses obedience as the first great test. Does that soul have the spirit of obedience as his own?... When the turning point of conversion to God comes, we become "children of obedience." From the very first this is the true expression of a heart purified by faith. From then on the settled, inward desire is to obey God — perhaps long before solid peace comes.

It is important also to watch out for old habits. When the Christian relationship is new, a person may not weigh them seriously enough. Habits tend to press their evil influence again once truth loses that fresh power over the soul which the ungrieved Spirit keeps up. So Peter adds here, "do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance."... They had all the more reason to guard against taking the shape of what dishonoured Christ, since the God and Father of Christ had given them new birth into a living hope.

"As children of obedience" — those who by new birth have gained that precious character — let them live in keeping with it, with an obedience of willing, devoted affection. That means refusing to be shaped by their former desires, which came out of ignorance. And ignorance here is not merely a misunderstanding. It is ignoring what can be known. The child of God knows there is no happiness in those desires, and he himself has something that infinitely surpasses them.

The heart, unsatisfied with God, went out after what only produced more craving and never satisfied.

"But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" — in every kind of walk. When people go away on holiday, they sometimes think, "At home I would go to the meeting as usual, but nobody knows me here." That's the world. It is not a matter of putting on a formal collar on Sunday and taking it off every other day. The Lord would have Himself always before us, so that we should be consistent every day and be holy. Does God lower His holiness? He cannot give a standard less than Himself.

Scripture speaks of holiness, like sanctification, in two ways: (1) as a position, which is absolute, and (2) as a practice, which grows… In the first letter of Peter we find just the same thing. He says, "Be holy" (1 Peter 1:15) to the very people to whom he says, "You are… a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9).

God is dealing with us on the ground of grace, and also of holiness. For us, holiness is as much a part of grace as any other blessing. "Be holy; for I am holy" is the expression of intimacy, and does not come merely as a command. Grace must make us holy, "partakers of His holiness"… It is not God requiring man's holiness, but making us partakers of His. What more could we wish? Love does it. He makes us partakers of the very thing that separates God from all that does not match Himself — holiness, not mere innocence. Innocence is the ignorance of good and evil: you would not say that God was innocent, but holy.

And because the Father who has called us is holy, all His children should show that same character in every part of life. Even the Old Testament (Lev. 11:44) had said, "Be holy, for I am holy;" not "because the law requires it." If it was true then, how much more so for those who know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! This is loving conformity to a Person, not demanded conformity to a law. It involves loving what is good and hating evil.

Now, as children, we are told to be holy, that is, separate from evil. The Apostle quotes the law to insist on holiness (Leviticus 11:44). However much the character of the age may change, the nature of God cannot change. It was true under law, and it is still true under grace, that God is absolute in holiness. So everyone in relationship with God must be holy, whether under law or grace.

It is now the children, not of the fathers, but of God the Father, whose standing is not in flesh, but in Christ. The holiness rises according to the place and relationship.

I have spoken only of the negative side — separation from evil; there is also the positive — holiness to the Lord. We are called from the one to the other. But as to practical holiness, the second is impossible without the first — separation from evil… "As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct." If I am true to Him, I am leaving the one (evil) and reaching after the other.

So we read, "As He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct (literally, your manner of life)" (1 Peter 1:15). The next verse goes on to say, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." The quotation is from Leviticus 11:44, "For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy."

Was this an unheard of requirement on God's part? Far from it. When He ruled as the LORD over a people who were His by natural birth, it could be no other way: "You shall be holy, for I am holy." The apostle cites Leviticus 11:44… Now it is the children of God the Father, not the children of the fathers. Their standing is not in natural descent, but in Christ. The holiness rises according to the place and relationship.

Used of God, the word speaks of Him as holy. He knows good and evil perfectly, and wills good and no evil. Used of people, it marks them out as separated — set apart to God, away from evil and from common use.

God is dealing with us on the ground of grace, and of holiness too. For us, holiness is as much a part of grace as any other blessing. "Be holy, for I am holy" is the expression of intimacy, and comes not merely in the way of command. Grace must make us holy, "partakers of His holiness"… God is not demanding a holiness of man's own. He is making us share in His. What more could we wish? Love does it. He gives us a share in the very thing that separates God from everything unlike Himself — holiness, not mere innocence. Innocence is not knowing good and evil. You would not call God innocent; you would call Him holy… It is "His holiness" — knowing evil as He knows it, and being able to rise above it.

The Father who has called us is holy. So the same character should show in all His children, in every part of life. Even the Old Testament (Lev. 11:44) had said, "Be holy, for I am holy" — not "because the law demands it." If that was true then, how much more for those who know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! This is loving likeness to a Person, not forced likeness to a law. It means loving what is good and hating evil.

It is good to see where the personal holiness of God's people comes from. Their complete separation from every kind of uncleanness flows out of their relationship to Him. It does not work on the principle of "stand back, I am holier than you." It is simply this: "God is holy." So everyone He brings into association with Himself must be holy too… Someone may ask a Christian why he stays away from the ten thousand things the men of this world join in. His answer is simply to be, "My Father is holy." This is the true foundation of personal holiness.

All believers stand in the same condition of holiness, or sanctification. But how far that shows in practice may vary to any degree. The condition comes from our being brought near to God by the blood of the cross. How far it shows will depend on our keeping near, by the power of the Spirit.

Jehovah was God's name for Israel; Father is His name for the Christian. This is not fatherhood in the ordinary sense, where every person comes from His breath, as with Adam and the whole race. It is the special and spiritual nearness into which the risen Christ brought the believer. "Go to My brothers and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." Redemption was now accomplished and accepted as the new standing fact. His resurrection had purged sins and given life in abundance. So He could announce that His brothers enter the same relationships He Himself had as risen from the dead.

People often misunderstand this verse. Some have taken it to mean the future judgment — our appearing before the judgment seat of Christ. But that is impossible. The Lord Himself tells us plainly that "the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." … The judgment Peter means is the one the Father carries on every day inside His family. It is present, not future.

The Father keeps His eye on each child every day, watching what we do; and as we sow, so we reap. The obedient child says: I would like that there might be nothing in my path, day by day, that my Father would not be pleased to see. He is looking on, and He comes in too with restraining grace, and often with chastening. This is how the Father judges, and that judgment is good and wholesome for our souls.

He weighs actions with perfect accuracy. He does not see as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Only this way can we discover the true character of our works. On the outside they may often look good and beautiful. But if the motive behind them came to light, our view might change completely. The Father's eye rests on the inmost springs of our conduct, and so He is never deceived.

Because God has shown such grace, does this mean that He relaxes His government? Many have assumed that this must be the case, but it is not so. The Father still judges impartially according to every man's work. Grace has saved us for eternity, yet Scripture still tells us what our works should look like. If they do not match our relationship to Him as His children, the Father will deal with us now, in serious discipline.

For a child of God there can be no penalty in the true sense. Chastening is his for that very reason.

If this is so, then "conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile." That means a gracious fear of grieving the Father's heart. It springs from a sense of the holiness of His character. … It is good for our hearts to remember this. God has brought us into the most tender and intimate relationship with Him as our Father. Yet He is always the Holy One, and His government of His family is holy too. Confidence in His grace and love, and full liberty in His presence, should never keep us from the deepest reverence. It should lead us into it.

It is touching to consider the implications of these two expressions: one reminds us that, as Christians, we are only here for a short time (why do we often act as if earth were to be our home for many centuries to come?). The other tells us that the world we are in is not our real home. We have duties here, and responsibilities, but it is not where we belong.