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Post by Josh on Oct 21, 2007 20:58:08 GMT -8
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
17Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
2: 1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Post your comments/ questions/ discussion starters on 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 as replies here.
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Post by Josh on Oct 23, 2007 21:42:31 GMT -8
Some questions for further thought:
What is holiness? Why is it important? What is the relationship between Holiness and Love in this passage? What extra information does this passage give us on what it means to live as "strangers in the world"?
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Post by Josh on Oct 26, 2007 20:30:56 GMT -8
Since a big theme of Sunday is Holiness, here are some quotes from the early Church father Clement on the subject. What I like about these quotes, besides being challenging, are how balanced they are when lined up (kinda like Scripture):
“Christ alone is sinless. However, as far as we are able, let us try to sin as little as possible.”
“As I conceive it, sanctity is perfect pureness of mind, deeds, thoughts, and words. In its last degree, it is sinlessness in dreams.”
“For it is in this manner that one truly follows the Savior: by aiming at sinlessness and at His perfection.”
“One does not have to be gloomy, only serious. For I certainly prefer a man to smile who has a stern countenance… but even smiling must be disciplined. For we should not smile at what is disgraceful. Rather, we should blush, lest we seem to take pleasure in it by sympathy”
“I know of no one among men who is perfect in all things at once, as long as he is still human… the only exception is He alone who clothed Himself with humanity for us”
Clement of Alexandria (c.195)
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Post by Josh on Oct 27, 2007 20:27:47 GMT -8
This week’s passage is where the action kicks in. Holiness and love in action is the title I’ve selected. And I think Holiness and Love aren’t paired together in this passage by accident.
As I said last week, I think our culture, by and large, reacts negatively to the concept of Holiness. Perhaps the first phrase that pops into your head upon hearing the word Holiness is Holier than Thou. Unfortunately, the word holy has been defined more as an arrogant assertion that one is better than someone else, and very rarely as the Bible communicates it.
Biblical holiness connotes two main ideas: being set apart and conforming to God’s nature and will.
We have already discussed to some degree what it means to be “set apart”, but let’s focus on the second idea, conforming to God’s nature and will.
The passage we have read this week states, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." (1 Peter 1:15-16)
If we are believers, surely we agree that God is holy- completely whole and perfect. But doesn’t it seem either impossible, or worse, unreasonable for God to expect that we ourselves be holy? After all, one dominant maxim in the larger culture is “no one is perfect”. We use this mantra to make ourselves feel better when we fail to live up to standards of behavior. But should being and acting like everyone else necessarily make us feel better about ourselves? Could it be that we’ve lost the shock of the reality that none of us are “whole-y”?
A helpful way to understand holiness (conforming to God’s nature and will) is to think of the word holiness as “whole-i-ness”. God is completely whole—that is, completely perfect and not lacking in any way. God created us to be completely whole, but because of our sin, we have become broken. As sinners, before being born again, there is not one aspect of us (mind, emotion, will, soul, and body) that is not lacking perfection. Christ died for us so that we could take on His holiness. When we trust Jesus for our salvation, God creates in us a new creation, in which we appropriate Jesus’ righteous perfection. Still, we must deal with our “old man”—our “sinful nature”, also known in Scripture as “the flesh”*. This we must learn to put to death daily as the seed of our “new man”, the new identity we have in Christ, grows within us. We must let the new creation in us grow until in every respect, in our totality, we have become completely Holy, as God is. This work is done by (and in cooperation with) the Holy Spirit in our lives, to be finally completed at the day of judgment**. Then we will be perfect holistically (there’s that root work again)- that is, in every aspect of our being (mind, emotion, will, body, and soul)
If you were to dream up your ideal universe, would you place within it something that was less than whole? I think probably not. Now imagine a universe in which everything and everyone was whole. You can do it. It would be a sublime reality.
But now imagine something creeping in to taint even just one of those things or persons. Imagine if just one person ceased, even in some small way, to be whole.
The gap between utter perfection and anything short of it is shocking. It would be larger in significance than even large gaps between differing levels of imperfection.
To get a picture of this, image a ship at sea that is wholly intact, seaworthy, and airtight. If something were to puncture its hull, it would lose its ability to float. Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter whether the breach was large or even tiny—if water is seeping in at all, the ship is certain to eventually sink.
Now, if you’ve followed that imagining at all, perhaps we have just a bit of a glimpse of the heavenly perspective on holiness- and the shock of sin, even the smallest of sins.
A perfectly whole being can relate perfectly to another perfectly whole being, even if one of those beings is far less powerful or infinite than the other. But the minute even slight imperfections enter into one of those beings, suddenly a vast chasm emerges in quality between the two. And we are told in Scripture that this vast chasm is so deep and wide that is has broken the ability of the imperfect creature to be able to have a perfect relationship with the one Who is Completely Whole. Perfect relationship has been lost because of sin. That’s a big deal. Just because we’ve never known a completely perfect relationship doesn’t mean we shouldn’t feel the loss. In fact, I think every one of us is longing for the perfect relationship, but outside of Christ, we can’t see how we could ever attain it.
That’s the sting of sin. But the beautiful message of the Gospel is that God has decisively begun the process of reconciling us imperfect, incomplete beings to Himself, back to a perfectly whole relationship, through His perfect Son Jesus’ incarnation, example, death, atonement, resurrection, and judgment on our behalf.
So, after this long theological journey, let’s return to the point at hand: God’s aim isn’t to just “let us off” and “leave us as we are”. No, that won’t work because we would not be able to be in relationship with Him, we would not be “fit for heaven”. God’s aim is to make us perfect. For those of us who have believed on Jesus, then that process of perfection has already begun. But Peter is telling us here, as Jesus did in Matthew 5:48 and elsewhere) that we must choose to be Holy in the here and now. We must not lower that goal, even though it seem impossible.
Regarding holiness, the goal for the Christian is not “being better than others”– it is always “a whole relationship with God”
It doesn’t follow that this hunger for perfection has to lead to repressive guilt. Because of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, we can run to Him for forgiveness whenever our hearts condemn us. No, keeping our eyes on the prize of holiness gives us strength to fight because holiness for us means right and pure relationship with God the Father—the ultimate desire of every human being. We have a serious mission, as Peter says in our passage:
“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance… Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:13-14, 17-19.
A hard question: Does this call to action describe your life on a regular basis? Or, does your life look more similar to the “empty way of life handed down to us”? What does living out this call to action look like in the modern world? (can you give some real-world examples?)
Now, back to why I said I didn’t think that Holiness and Love were paired together in this passage by accident:
1 Peter 1:22 “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.”
God wants us to be holy simply so that we can have relationship with Him. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14b). It’s not an arbitrary rule- it’s just the way reality works, as we saw above.
Well, that’s the way love works among humans too. Purity is important to right relationship with others—crucial if we want to attempt to love one another deeply. The reason is that sin in our lives corrupts our ability to see others, it cripples us by causing us to focus on ourselves. Whether this manifests as arrogance, or shame, or fear, sin hurts our ability to love.
The cool thing is that love is also the primary antidote to our sin. God’s love purifies us. The loving actions of others can cover over a multitude of sins, as we’ll learn later in Peter. And when we choose to love, it’s our way out of our self-absorption and inward impurity. This is why Peter says later: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. “ (1 Peter 2:1) All of those things prevent us from loving and receiving love- from others and from God. That fact is a great motivator in fighting against our sinful desires day to day.
This theme of purity shows up once more in our text for this week: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:3) The milk is God’s love which he has already bestowed on us. Do we crave it enough to grow up, so that we might more fully experience it, and extend it to others?
If so, get ready for a fight and an adventure. Next week we’ll see what God’s ideal setting for the adventure is—the Church.
*not to be confused with our bodies. ** according to most, though some might argue that it is upon our death (see 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 and other passages in support of the former)
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