Go in My Way

¹³ Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; ¹⁴ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; ¹⁵ but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:13-16

I’ve heard sermons on this text and they usually end up referring to 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  The thought is that when you were saved, you became a different person, or at least that is the way I always understood it when I was young.  Actually, it never really made sense to me.  I remember wondering, how am I a new person?  I would especially wonder this when I’d go home from church and do the same thing I used to do the day after church as a supposedly saved person.  I mean, I understood the basics of it, I wasn’t supposed to do those things I knew I shouldn’t do, but heck I already knew that just from being taught right from wrong.  So, my only reasoning was just that as a saved person I was new to heaven, you know “born again”.  Being born makes you new, right?

The text in 1 Peter clarifies this being new for me.  The one part of being new that matters more than the rest as we live daily is “are the desires of our heart new?”  Every morning we should have a new desire for the Lord and the characteristics of the Lord.  The Lord is so fulfilling and so satisfying as His Spirit completes us that it is only natural to desire more of Him in each new day.  This single aspect of my heart’s content is the speedometer on my dashboard of life that I try to pay the most attention.  If this “speed” goes to low then I’m in trouble and something isn’t right in my thoughts or actions.  The “speed” can’t go to high, the faster the better.  Every day should have a new desire for the righteousness of God within me.

We are instructed here to be mindful that the former lusts were done in our ignorance.  Anything done outside of God’s instruction is ignorance as it is done in our own authority.  Proverbs specifically tells us “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”  The first step to knowing God is to realize that “God is God and I am man”, as Stephen Curtis Chapman sings.  So, if we claim any knowledge of God, then we won’t live as we formally did, in our sins. 

Finally, we are told “as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct”.  We are to be as He is, because of who He is.  The Lord says in Leviticus 20:7 to “be holy, for I am the Lord our God.”  We are to be set apart, without fault, a display of His characteristics because He is our God and He is holy.  We are His children, His prize, and His love.  He wants us to be what is best for all of Creation, Him.  This is what the world needs, more of Him, everywhere He can be makes it better.

We are to be holy in all our conduct because we have a new heart that desires Him first and not ourselves first.  We are to be holy in all our conduct because we know that He is the one true living God and we are not Him.  We are to be holy in all our conduct because we are His children and our Father is holy.

If our earthly father came to us and said, “I want you to go and be productive as a good citizen because I’ve showed you what attitude to have, I’ve taught you how to be productive, and you’ve got my name and that’s how we should be.”  Would we feel prepared to enter the world?  Certainly more than someone who didn’t have those gifts and confident encouragement.  God says the same to us here.  My Spirit is in your heart, my words are in your mind, you are My child with My name, go and conduct yourself in My way.”