1 Peter 1:13-16, Be Holy

I challenged, privately, a young woman who publicly disrespected a fellow believer on Facebook because he didn’t take the same political view she did. Rightly or wrongly, I asked her if her father, who had recently died, would have taken the same attitude. She said he would have. We expect children to emulate the character of their parents. Peter says we are to emulate the character of our heavenly Father.

¹³ Therefore, getting your minds in gear and being sober of thought, set your hope thoroughly upon the grace that is coming to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. ¹⁴ As obedient children, don’t conform to your former ignorant desires, ¹⁵ but like the One who called you is holy, so you also be holy in all your behavior. ¹⁶ Because it is written, “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Peter has described the glorious, incorruptible nature of our salvation in Christ. We have been chosen by God to be born again into this living hope and guaranteed an unfading inheritance at the return of Jesus. It was predicted by the prophets and is an irresistible attraction for the angels. “Therefore,” in light of this promise of a glorious salvation to come, Peter says, we must have a focused mindset.

Peter tells his readers to “tuck in the folds of the robes of their minds into their belts.” That is the sense of the metaphor he is using. If a person wanted to be able to move faster or work harder in their long tunic, they needed to tuck it in to their belts to give freedom of movement. Applied to our thinking, we would say, “Get your mind in gear,” and to think soberly, seriously. It is important for a believer to form the intention of living for Jesus. As Peter puts it, we should set our hope thoroughly, entirely, completely on that future grace or salvation that Jesus will bring to us when he returns.

We are saved now. But there is a future rescue or salvation that will be ours when Jesus is “revealed” or made visible as he returns to earth in all his glory. As Jesus himself said, “For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27). True, his coming will bring judgment to the world of unbelievers, but it will bring resurrection and transformation to believers (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). It will bring our induction into the kingdom of God as Christ takes up rule on earth. It will be our introduction to eternal life forever with Christ, his Father, and the Holy Spirit. That is the hope we believers have and we should set our minds fully on that hope, on the grace that Christ is bringing. To have any other hope for our lives is to not be a Christian.

Christians are children of obedience, Peter says, and as such obedient children of God, we must represent the character of our Father. We must be holy as He is holy. We must emulate our Father. Before we were made His children we followed ignorant desires, desires that did not take into account our Creator God, desires that led to damaging behavior and ultimate hopelessness. But now that we know our heavenly Father and have been born again, we must give ourselves to following Him in all our behavior.

We must be holy as He is holy. That must be our goal. We will not reach that goal in this life, but that must be the goal. The perfection of the Father, lived out in Jesus Christ, promoted in us by the Holy Spirit, is the only right goal. We must want to love as He loves, for that is the essence of holiness (Matthew 5:43-48; Ephesians 4:1-3; 1 John 3:11-18). Love for our neighbor is the heart of the commandments (honor father and mother, don’t steal, kill, be unfaithful to, lie to, or envy others). Yahweh commands, “Be holy, because I am holy,” Leviticus 11:45.