“As He who called you is holy, you also be holy.” 1 Peter 1:15 NKJV.
Holiness begins by being wholly His.
My thoughts and comments today are about “holier than thou.”
Admittedly, holy is a high standard to achieve. It seems that we either discount it as an impossibility for anyone, or despair of the spiritual attribute as personally unattainable. Being imperfect doesn’t help. We are incurably self-centered, often foolish, predictably impulsive, and naturally sinful. Of all the New Testament authors, Peter might be the last one I would have expected to write about being holy. As we would say in Texas, he was a bit “rough around the edges.” Peter meant well, but often was out of step with Jesus.
Peter should have re-read the words of Isaiah, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Read Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV. God’s ways are holy. Years after Jesus’ resurrection, an older and wiser Peter wrote, “As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” 1 Peter 1:15-16 NKJV. By both divine command and calling, as well as God’s example and enabling, you and I are called to be holy “in all our conduct.” Holiness commences, continues, and is only completed by being wholly His. The concept of holiness is related to the model of wholeness – all that Father God intends, all that Christ redeemed, and all the Holy Spirit produces in us. See Galatians 5:22-23 NIV.
Becoming holy is not something you can achieve by your own efforts; even your best efforts will fall short. “God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” 2 Tim 1:9 NIV. Holiness is more about righteousness than religiousness, more about internals than externals, about who you are in Christ more than what you try to be in your own strength. “Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Romans 6:23 NIV.
I am encouraged to realize that holy is not something I can do without the Holy Spirit, even though becoming holy will ultimately shape and impact everything I say and do. Holy is something you and I are to become as a product of all that Jesus Christ has done in grace through salvation. Our success is already assured by the One who calls us to be holy. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Read 1 John 3:1-3 NKJV.
Today, I pray for you to surrender to your sovereign Lord all you are and desire to become.
Christian Communications