"BE YE HOLY" part 1

These series of posts will discuss the topic of holiness, mainly personal holiness in the life of the believer. 1 Peter 1:14-16 says, "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; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" Do you feel the gravity of those words? Maybe we don't because 1) we don't understand the grandeur and awesome quality of God's holiness and 2) we aren't in the habit of pursuing holiness in our everyday existence. I include myself in this analysis. Of course, as finite creatures we will never fully comprehend His holiness. I do think it's imperative though to seek to understand it as best we can; to strive to know Him in all His holiness, goodness, justice and love. The imperative comes in these verses in 1 Peter. There are two commands and one reason. There is a command to not do something and a command to do something. "do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance." When we were without Christ we were ignorant. Romans 3 says that no one does good and no one seeks after God. Ephesians 2 says we were dead in our trespasses. An unbeliever cannot be holy. They may do good works as judged my men but they cannot be holy. But when God mercifully and sovereignly tears the scales off our eyes to see "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:4) we are given new desires, godly desires. We are able, through our new birth in Christ and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, to please God. Because of God's grace we can say no to sin and yes to the promises of faith. The second command is in my humble opinion one of the most sobering in the whole Bible. "But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior." In every word and deed we are to be holy. And then the reason for this is given: "because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." This is a quote from several passages in Leviticus. God is communicating there the seriousness of the call to His chosen nation. They are to reflect Him. They are to be holy. The next time you're reading in the Old Testament, especially in the prophetic books and Leviticus-Deuteronomy, notice how many times God gives this reason for a command or for an action taken -- "for I am the Lord your God," "that they may know I am the Lord," etc. God's call to His people is no less serious today. The trick is not to fall into legalism. I am guilty of that a lot and the enemy takes advantage of that weakness. Sometimes I feel like one of those puffer fish. I get puffed up with pride because of all the right things I'm doing (or all the wordly things I'm not doing) and then I realize my sin and Satan discourages me with self-pity (that's the unpuffed part of the puffer fish analogy :0) I think in order to follow these commands we need to make sure we understand the holiness of God. That's why I'm going through Sproul's book by the same name again so I can add his thoughts to the discussion. Well, it's getting late so I'll pick up the discussion again tomorrow.

Blessings