Be a Holy Person || 1 Peter 1:14-16 || Manna for the Mind #1

This begins our new journey into my new devotional content that I’m calling “Manna for the Mind.”

If you’ve been here before, you may be familiar with my “Midweek Midrash” or “Weekend Wind-Down” devotional series.

If not, then welcome! This series takes a passage of scripture to focus on (typically 1-3 verses) and then looks at context and connecting scripture to build on what the Bible is trying to teach us. Unlike my previous series, I plan to share three devotionals a week (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) to give you the daily bread I hope you’re hungry for.

With all that being said, let’s get into it!

1 Peter 1:14-16

14        So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.

15        But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.

16        For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

The God of Israel and the Christian church are holy. What does it mean to be holy? Peter uses the Greek word hagios (hag’-ee-os), which is defined as sacred or holy. It refers to being set apart by or for God. We must be different and unlike those who don’t believe. We are called to reflect God’s image, often different from what we reflect from the world.

God is our standard for morality. For Peter’s audience, they would’ve also been tempted to follow the Roman gods or gods of the pagan cultures. God isn’t violent, unfaithful, or spiteful as the Roman gods were. God isn’t promiscuous or bloodthirsty like the gods of the popular pagan cults. God rules with mercy and justice while caring personally about his followers.

God wants (and expects) us to imitate him by following his high moral standards. What does that look like? It means to be merciful (forgiving) and just. It means sacrificing ourselves for others. I feel called to say that you need to understand what God’s justice is genuinely about. I’ve had a lot of conversations where people look at stories of God sending Israelite armies to murder people to capture land and go with the belief that God is evil and hypocritical. I can understand how they reach these conclusions, but we must also consider why God is doing that and what it represents. While studying for the “Tower Defense” series, I had a couple of revelations about understanding war and battle stories of the Old Testament through looking at the stories of the Edomites and Moabites. When you look at the battle stories, figure out what the two sides are fighting for and why God sent the Israelite armies to fight. Understanding the story from that perspective helped me see God’s plan for the world develop through the Bible.

Peter is saying that all parts of our lives and character should be in the process of becoming conformed, both inwardly and outwardly, to God’s standards. It’s a journey that lasts from birth to death. It doesn’t finish when you become a Christian. In fact, you feel this process more intensely. It will feel more challenging to stay away from the ways of your old self. There are parts of my old ways that I’m still working through, such as pornography and impulsive spending. I’m not perfect, but I’m progressing. That should be the mindset we always walk with it. You’ll never finish learning to be more like God, but we will always strive to learn and apply his ways to our daily actions, thoughts, and decisions. Be mindful of the Christians you find that claim perfection, but the only perfect one in human history was and is Jesus.

Peter says that we should be like God. We must be holy, meaning we’re devoted and dedicated to God. We set ourselves apart from the world’s ways for his particular use. We’re to be different in a positive way. Christians aren’t ordinary people, at least not the ones I’m around. The stories they share through their testimonies are meaningful and have helped me reflect on my life. Christians will do crazy things like donate savings accounts worth of money to churches, donate cars and homes to people in need, help pay bills, or provide meals for those in need. I know these aren’t crazy, but they are according to the world’s standards. That’s why Christians are called to be different but in a positive way.

Our focus and priorities must be on God, which will contrast our current ways. Being holy isn’t something that we can do on our own. God makes us holy through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us be God and overcome our sins. We need to rely on God’s power to free us from sin’s grip so that we can be and make a difference in our circle of influence. This includes talking to God when we’re tempted and asking for his strength to overcome the temptation. Allow our prayer to remind us that God is good and that our sinful temptation isn’t who we are or what we must do anymore to find happiness. The more we claim this, the more likely it’s stored in our memory, and the easier it is to remember when we get into these moments of temptation. The power of overcoming this can feel so intense that it might get someone in your circle to overcome their temptation, which can spring into the most beautiful butterfly effect ever.

Romans 12:2

2          Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Paul warns Christians about following the selfish ways of the world. We can claim that a large portion of how the world works is off-limits, but it needs to go deeper than that. It’s not about our behaviors and customs but about our minds. How we think, talk, and make decisions make just as much of a difference as our behavior. It’s possible to avoid the world’s way of life and still be prideful, jealous, selfish, stubborn, and arrogant. When we allow the Holy Spirit to renew, reeducate, and redirect our minds, we are truly transformed. I have this story to share because I felt the Holy Spirit take over.

I was teaching my former youth Bible study and had a kid tell me something was wrong in the bathroom. I looked and discovered that someone had graffitied “JESUS LOVES YOU” with a hand soap on our bathroom mirror. I had no clue how to react. I was upset, but not all at the same time. Typically, I would’ve paused class, yelled, or sat in the classroom quietly until someone fessed up. I didn’t, though. I put one of my high schoolers in charge to lead the class and asked each individual to come down to the bathroom and tell me if they did this. After questioning everyone, I got closer to the answer, but no one fessed up. We finished class, got everyone settled for dinner, and then went to review the security camera that covered the entrance to that door. I found two suspects, one on my original list and a little five-year-old. I had VERY little doubt it was the five-year-old, so I called the suspect over and said we know what happened, and it’ll be easier if you confessed. They did.

I wasn’t mad at them because of it. I mean, they shared that Jesus loved whoever walked in. That’s the whole idea of the church. But I explained that the custodian would have to take extra time out of his workday to clean this, and that wasn’t fair, which they agreed. We reviewed the consequences, which involved a verbal apology to the custodian, an offer to help clean it, and a more significant responsibility to help clean up dinner. I was proud of myself for not letting anger win. How I handled it allowed the situation to diffuse much more simply and built a better relationship with that youth. I can be a hothead most times, so this is a Holy Spirit win.

2 Corinthians 7:1

1          Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body and spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

This cleanse consists of turning away from sin (repenting) and towards God. Paul wanted the Corinthians to have nothing to do with pagan temples or feasts. They were to leave their old selves and give themselves to God alone. Paul wasn’t suggesting that they could become perfectly sinless. Paul didn’t even believe that about himself. What he was doing was encouraging them to work at maturing their faith. God gave the Corinth church all the resources they needed, and Christ’s Spirit would empower them to become Christlike. It works the same for us. We have all the resources needed to become more Christlike. It’s deciding to turn away from our old selves and embrace what that truly means for our lives. You will see your thoughts shift, your words change, and your actions differ, all in a positive way that allows you to love and care for others as God does for you.

Leviticus 11:44-45

44        For I am the Lord your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground.

45        For I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

This passage provides clarity in understanding the laws and regulations taught in Leviticus. God wanted his people to be holy, just like him. God knew that they had two options: be separate and holy or compromise with their pagan neighbors and be corrupt. God called them out of Egypt (away from their pagan neighbors) to be set apart as a unique nation that worships God alone and lives in ways that honor him. This is why the laws and restrictions were what they were. God wanted them to remain socially and spiritually separate from the pagan neighbors they’d encountered in Canaan. 

We’re called to be holy, that is, spiritually and socially, separate from the ways of the world. I’m not saying that we’re to go into isolation. We’ll interact with unbelievers daily, no matter what we do. The idea is to remain holy, even though we’ll be inundated with the world’s temptations. God helps us to accomplish this. One of the things I experience with this is trips to the gas station. I struggle with impulsively purchasing lottery tickets. I face the temptation of that every time I walk in with all the varieties and colors that grab my attention every time. To combat this, I planned to shop at a gas station down the road from me that doesn’t sell lottery tickets, so that way, there’s no temptation. Going there would require more effort if I wanted to, so this plan didn’t work out. Instead, I planned to go in there and make a genuine statement and reminder that I would not purchase them. Even if I had to repeat it in my head or out loud. This worked honestly. I can go in there and not fear the impulsivity of them. Glory to God for giving me this wisdom and ability to do this.

Today, I discussed the meaning of ‘holy’ and how we are called to be different and reflect God’s image. I looked at how Christians are called to be different in a positive way, with their focus and priorities on God. I also emphasized the need to rely on God’s power to free us from sin’s grip and to ask for His strength to overcome temptation. Let us pray.

Father God, we thank you for the gift of your son and the ability to become as holy as you are. Please help us be different. Help us love and care for each other in ways that aren’t normal to the world but normal to you. Keep our focus and priorities on you. In times of temptation, Lord, we come to you for strength and wisdom. It’s in your name, we pray. Amen.