Be Holy

Last week I wrote about lust of ignorance, the fact that lust is driven by ignorance and that we ought to know better. I noticed, in the meantime, a couple other features of the passage I referenced.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:14-16)

So, we got that former ignorance thing down now. But then I found something else interesting. It says, "Do not be conformed to ..." That's accurate, but ambiguous. It could be read to suggest that there is no will involved, like a lump of clay sitting on a bench that gets picked up and shoved into a mold and comes out shaped like the mold. It was "conformed to" the image of the mold, but not by choice. And in terms of the world and its lusts, we might feel that way ourselves. We don't want to be conformed to it, but it just seems to press us into the mold. That, however, is not the best way to understand the text. The King James says, "not fashioning yourselves according to ..." The actual language is that "fashioning alike" idea. So the actual sense of the text is not, "This could happen to you." It is "Don't do it yourself." "Do not conform yourself to the passions of your former ignorance." This is a choice, a conscious effort. It's not something that happens to you; it's something you do. Do you make efforts to conform to the world and its lusts? That's what Peter is saying not to do.

The other interesting thing that came up was the scope of the command. He says we are to be holy, and you're aware of how far that might go in view of the term "holy," but he says you are to be holy "in all your conduct." Really? All your conduct? I mean, we all know that there is the sacred and the secular. And we get that we might want to be holy in our sacred conduct. But the secular? Of course, as it turns out, the divide between sacred and secular is artificial. We see this in Paul's command, "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor 10:31) Eat or drink? That's not sacred. "Whatever you do"? That's not sacred. But all of it is to be done to the glory of God. And that makes all of it sacred, all of it a matter of God's glory. That means that how we dress or how we drive to work, how we relate to coworkers and family members, what we eat and drink (because that's exactly what Paul said) ... all of it is a matter of God's glory, a matter of holiness. So we are supposed to eat holy. We are supposed to be holy in our treatment of others. We are supposed to worship holy and converse with others holy. We're supposed to pray holy and drink holy. All of our conduct is to be holy, is to glorify God (Matt 5:16).

We have a big command here, but it is predicated on the One who is "holy, holy, holy." That means we derive our will and power to do so from Him (Php 2:13). The only question will be if you're willing to do it or not.