1 Peter 1:13-16: A Hope That Inspires Holiness

1 Peter 1:13-16: A Hope That Inspires Holiness

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Peter, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Peter 1:13-16. It says,

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, what a privilege it is to open and study your word. We understand that these words come from your very mouth. They’re God-breathed and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. So help us, by your Holy Spirit, to be thoroughly equipped for each of those things and ultimately to come to a deeper knowledge, a deeper love, and a deeper relationship with you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

When Jesus saves someone, he not only forgives them of their sins but also changes them into a new person. The Bible describes it as a heart of stone being replaced with a heart of flesh. The individual is now a new person with a new nature, new desires, new priorities, and an entirely new outlook on life. 

I once heard a preacher describe it this way. Imagine that we brought a pig in here and led him right down to the foot of these stairs. Then imagine we also brought in a nice big pile of slop and set it down in front of this pig. I’m sure the pig would love that slop. He’d probably feast on it and role in it and think it was the best thing ever. Why would he think that? Well, because he’s a pig. And pigs like slop. It’s in their nature to like slop. 

But imagine we had the ability to instantly turn that pig into a man somehow. What would happen when we did that? How would that man respond to having a mouthful of slop and having slop smeared all over his body? He’d be absolutely disgusted, of course. He’d spit out every bit of that slop, try his best to wipe it off of himself, and be mortified that we’d seen him in such a condition. That would be his natural response as a man. By nature, humans find slop disgusting. And that’s the way a true Christian feels about sin. God has changed their heart—their very nature—in a fundamental way so that they’re now disgusted by the sin they once loved. They hate it and find it repulsive.

Another way to say this is that a true Christian desires holiness. They have a built-in desire to live a life that brings glory to God and that reflects God’s own character. The God of the Bible is a holy God, and so Christians have a desire to be holy as well. 

However, there are challenges that we face. First of all, the world in which we live is obviously not one that’s very concerned about holiness. In fact, it often actively opposes holiness. You know, in our society especially, anyone who’s passionately pursuing a holy life is often seen as some kind of relic from a different era—an era where people actually cared about what are often called “traditional moral values.” So, to be a Christian in our society is to be swimming against the current. It’s to be headed in this direction, while everyone else is headed in that direction. Not only that, our own hearts also frequently lead us astray. Even though Jesus has changed our hearts and put to death that old sinful nature, it seems that the ghost of that sinful nature continues to linger and often pulls us into sin. Then, on top of both of those things, the Bible teaches us that Satan is a very real and active force in this world and is doing everything he can to pull us away from God as well.  

So, even though those of us who are Christians are new people with a new nature, we still need encouragement to pursue God and live a life that reflects God’s character—a life of holiness. And that’s exactly what our main passage of Scripture today, 1 Peter 1:13-16, encourages us to do. 

This passage begins in verse 13 with the word “therefore.” And as one of my seminary professors liked to say, whenever you see the word “therefore” in the Bible, you need to try to figure out what it’s “there for.” What’s the context? Because the word “therefore” points back to what’s just been said and either draws a conclusion about it or presents an application. So, if you look back at the preceding verses, you see that Peter’s just written at length about the “living hope” Christians have of a heavenly inheritance that’s “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” He’s then talked about the joy his readers have as they eagerly anticipate receiving that inheritance when Jesus returns. 

We then read in verse 13, “Therefore [because of everything that’s just been written], preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So, the main application Peter gives here is for us to “set [our] hope fully on the grace that will be brought to [us]” when Jesus returns. 

However, before we get to that, let’s not skip over what Peter says about “preparing [our] minds for action, and being sober-minded.” In the original Greek language, the phrase “prepare your minds” literally means “gird up the loins of your mind.” Back in ancient times, people would wear robes that weren’t very conducive to strenuous physical activity. So, if they wanted to do something like run or fight in a battle, they’d have to gather up the loose ends of their robe and tie the robe tightly to their bodies so that they’d be able to move around freely and easily and be ready for action. That’s what it literally meant for someone to gird up their loins. 

And in this verse, Peter’s telling us to do that very same thing with our minds. He says for us to gird up the loose ends of our minds and reign in our roaming thoughts and conform our minds to the truths revealed in the Bible. The implicit principle we find here is that right thinking is prerequisite to right living. Right thinking is prerequisite to right living. If you want to get your life in order, you need to begin by getting your mind in order. So, you might want to ask yourself this morning, what beliefs are you operating on in the course of your day-to-day life? Are you really living in light of the truths revealed in the Bible? And also, what fills your mind throughout the day? You know, 10 minutes reading the Bible in the morning followed by an hour of looking at Fox News or other similar media throughout the day isn’t going to shape you into a godly person. What are you filling your mind with? Peter tells us, “Gird up the loins of your mind.”

He then says to “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In other words, set your hope fully on the time when you’ll experience God’s grace in a climactic way at the return of Jesus.” And think about that word “fully.” That means we’re not hedging our bets here. We’re not living with a divided heart or divided loyalties. Diversification might be a wonderful approach in the world of investing, but it’s not at all an acceptable option when it comes to spiritual things. God expects us to be all in. He calls us to set our hope fully on what he's promised for our future and not live divided lives or harbor divided loyalties. 

So, what, then, does that involve? What does setting our hope fully on what God’s promised for our future look like in our lives presently? Well, Peter answers that question in the subsequent verses, verses 14-16. He writes, 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 

And that brings us to the main idea of this passage, which is that hope for the future inspires holiness in the present. Again, hope for the future inspires holiness in the present. To put it another way, the confident expectation we have of our heavenly inheritance in the future should lead us to live heavenly lives now. 

And looking at the beginning of verse 14, we see that we should do this “as obedient children.” Our mentality in pursuing holiness should one of assurance that we’re already God’s children. We’re not pursuing holiness in an effort to become God’s children but rather because we’ve already been adopted as his children through Jesus. Even though our sins once alienated us from God and made us deserving of God’s judgment in hell for all eternity, Jesus came to our rescue. He entered this world as a real human being, lived a perfectly sinless life, and then died on the cross to make atonement for our sins. That means he suffered the penalty our sins deserved so that we wouldn’t have to. Then, three days later, he resurrected from the dead with the result that those who put their trust in him are, among other things, adopted into God’s family as his own children—dearly loved and fully accepted by virtue of what Jesus has accomplished. So, as we seek to live holy lives, we’re not doing this in order to earn God’s love or acceptance or to obtain a place in his family. We’re doing it with the understanding that we’re already dearly loved children of God. And that makes us genuinely desire to please our heavenly Father and live lives that bring him glory. 

Peter then says that, “as obedient children,” we need to avoid being “conformed to the passions of [our] former ignorance.” In other words, don’t let the sinful desires that still exist within your hearts and that belong to your former mentality as a non-Christian pull you away from Jesus. Don’t let the ghost of your old self and your old nature have any influence in your life. Don’t let yourself be “conformed to” it, Peter says, or be pressed into its mold. 

Instead, Peter tells us in verses 15-16, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” So, we pursue holiness because we understand that we serve a holy God. Now, to say that God is holy can mean a couple of things. In one sense, God’s holiness means that he’s utterly unique. There’s no one like him in the entire universe. He alone is the Creator, while everything else is created. God alone also rules the world and sustains the world and causes everything in the world to work together in order to accomplish his perfect purposes. He’s the only one who does those things. In addition, it’s also true that God’s nature is qualitatively different than our nature. God’s not just quantitatively different than us—as in, fundamentally like us but just bigger and greater. No, God’s qualitatively different. He’s not like us at all. The essence of who he is is fundamentally different than the essence of who we are. So, that’s one sense in which God’s holy. He’s holy in the sense that he’s utterly unique. 

Yet there’s also another sense—perhaps we might say, a derivative sense—in which the Bible speaks of God’s holiness as well, and that is as a reference to his moral purity. God is holy in that he’s entirely unstained by sin. He has no inclination toward sin, no history of sin, and makes no compromises with sin whatsoever. And it’s holiness in this second sense of moral purity that we’re called to imitate. 

As Peter says in verse 15, “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” That means that God’s holiness is the pattern for our holiness. In our pursuit of holiness, we’re called to compare ourselves not with one another and certainly not with the godless world around us but rather with God. We’re to be holy “as he…is holy.” You know, if we just compared ourselves with each other, we might very well conclude that we’re pretty holy when, in fact, we might actually be quite far from the standard of holiness to which God calls us. 

It would be kind of like thinking that something’s white when, in fact, it’s actually not pure white but instead an off-white color. For example, your teeth might initially appear to be white when you’re just comparing them with one another. But if you found something that’s truly white—like maybe the pure white paint sample card from Home Depot—and put that up against your teeth, you’d discover that your teeth actually aren’t truly white. They’re an off-white, maybe even a yellowish white. So, in our pursuit of holiness, we want to make sure that we’re comparing ourselves with the proper standard of holiness. And that standard is God himself—not one another, not our godless society, but God himself. And that’s what Peter tells us to do. He says for us to be holy “as he who called you is holy.

Then, in verse 16, Peter references Leviticus 11:44 and says basically the same thing, except he phrases it a little bit differently. He writes, “since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” Now, back in the previous verse, we were told to be holy “as” God is holy. Yet, here, we’re told to be holy “for” or because God is holy. In other words, God’s holiness is not only the pattern of our holiness, it’s also the reason and the motivation for our holiness. 

You see, if we want to be close to a holy God, then we have to be holy ourselves. Of course, that begins with a positional holiness in which we have a holy status instantaneously imparted to us at our conversion by virtue of Jesus. But that’s not the end of it. If we want to experience closeness to God and have a sense of his presence in our daily lives, then we have to actually walk in holiness. Our positional holiness needs to be lived out and manifested in the form of practical holiness. We find this taught in numerous places throughout the Bible, such as Psalm 24:3-4, where David writes, 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. If you want to experience closeness with God and the joy of his presence, you have to actually be living a holy life. And that, I believe, is Peter’s point back in verse 16. We’re called to be holy “for”—or because of the fact that—God is holy. God’s holiness and our desire to have a close relationship with this holy God is one of the key things that motivates us to pursue holiness in our lives.  

Yet, at the same time, it’s by no means the only thing that motivates us. There are actually several motivations the Bible gives us for pursuing holiness that I’d like to share with you. Just like Peter’s original readers needed encouragement and motivation to live holy lives, we do as well. So, what motivates us to pursue holiness? Four things. 

The first and most foundational is a desire to glorify God. And the reason we desire to glorify God isn’t because we’re trying to earn anything but simply as an expression of our love and gratitude for all that God’s already done for us in and through Jesus. When we think about God saving us from our sins and showing us such marvelous grace, we desire to live lives that bring him glory. Bringing God glory actually becomes the grand ambition of our lives. 

Then the second motivation for us to pursue holiness is what we already discussed—a desire to be close to God. For the true Christian, there’s simply no greater joy in life than the joy found in God. As John Piper writes, “In the end, the heart longs not for any of God’s good gifts, but for God himself. To see him and know him and be in his presence is the soul’s final feast. Beyond this there is no quest.” For us, God’s not merely a means to an end like some kind of cosmic vending machine; instead, he’s the end itself—our ultimate goal and our highest joy. I love the way David says it in Psalm 27:4. He writes, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” And as we’ve already said, if we want to experience that, we have to be holy. 

Moving forward, a third motivation for pursuing holiness is a desire to avoid the destructive effects of sin. Sin is like a cancer that can’t be contained or controlled and therefore has to be killed. As John Owen so famously said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” The Bible also uses the metaphor of slavery to describe the impact sin has on our lives. Jesus states in John 8:34 that “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” And of course, when we’re saved, Jesus frees us from our sin. But for some reason—in what can only be described as insanity—there are times when we’re tempted to try and put the shackles of sin back on, apparently having forgotten just how ruthless and domineering sin is. Because, even though we tell ourselves that we can make sin serve us, that’s never the way it actually works out. It always ends up being not sin serving us but rather us serving sin. Sin is always the master, and we’re always its slaves. As Augustine said, “He that becomes protector of sin shall surely become its prisoner.”

Then, finally a fourth motivation for pursuing holiness is a desire to be useful for God’s Kingdom. If you’re a Christian, I hope that you have a desire to be used by God in wonderful ways. I hope you desire to make an impact on the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. Assuming that’s the case, just understand that the key to us making an impact on the world is us being distinct from the world. If we don’t live lives that are consistent with the way Jesus instructs us to live, then we probably won’t even have most people’s respect, much less be able to share the gospel with them in any compelling way. Jesus says it like this in Matthew 5:16 when he says to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

So, with all of these things in mind, let me encourage you to take a moment and think about your life and ask yourself if there are any obstacles that are standing in the way of your holiness that you need to address. Is there any way in which you’ve been deviating from the path God lays out for us in the behaviors you’ve been tolerating, the habits you’ve let yourself slip into, the ways you’ve been interacting with others in conversation, the attitudes you’ve been embracing, or the thoughts you’ve been entertaining? What sins have you been tolerating that you know the Lord would have you put to death even this very day?  

And maybe there are indeed some sins that the Holy Spirit is bringing to your mind even now and that are very apparent to you. Or maybe this would be something good for you to go home and pray about and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything he desires to reveal to you that you may not be very aware of now. Because the reality for all of us is that we’re often a lot more aware of the sins and shortcomings of others than we are about our own sins and shortcomings. Have you ever noticed that? I know I have. 

In addition, it’s just a fact that we live in a relatively godless society that embraces and even celebrates a wide array of different things that are directly contrary to God’s will. And we’d be foolish to think that the godless mindset all around us hasn’t affected us in ways that we’re not even aware of.  Kind of like a fish doesn’t know it’s wet because it’s swimming in an ocean of water, we don’t see many of our sins because we’re simply immersed in them. They’re all around us and are pervasive in our society. So, we need the Spirit of God to use the Word of God to expose our sins and then lead us to back to God in those areas and empower us in our pursuit of holiness.  

Also, any time we talk about pursuing holiness, I think one issue that often comes to people’s minds is the danger of legalism. Now, some people who aren’t Christians would view any pursuit of holiness as legalistic. I’m not talking about that. I hope it’s clear by now that the Bible does call us to a passionate pursuit of holiness. However, there is a such thing as legalism, and it is a very real danger. So, I’d like to spend a little bit of time addressing that. 

In reality, there are actually three different kinds of legalism. The first kind is trying to earn your salvation. This is by far the most serious type of legalism because those who have this mentality are under God’s condemnation. The Bible’s very clear that we’re saved by grace alone rather than by any personal merit and through faith in Jesus alone rather than through any good works. That’s just basic Christian teaching. Romans 3:28 says it quite clearly: “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” So, the first kind of legalism is trying to earn your salvation and is directly contrary to the gospel. 

Then another kind of legalism isn’t anywhere near as serious as the first but is still significant. It involves creating rules that aren’t found in the Bible. Usually, the way it works is that a well-meaning Christian develops convictions about certain behaviors that they believe are best to avoid and then insists that other Christians need to avoid those behaviors as well. The only problem is that the Bible never actually says that we need to avoid those behaviors. So, these Christians who do this are essentially elevating their own personal convictions and their own personal applications of Scripture to the status of being universal mandates for everybody. 

Just to give a few quick examples of this, there are Christians who would say that listening to secular music is always sinful, that alcohol consumption even in moderation is always sinful, that taking out a loan to purchase a car is always sinful, that a mother working outside the home is always sinful, that sending your children to public school is always sinful, that doing house chores on the Lord’s Day is always sinful, and on and on we could go. And it’s important to note that some of these things might be good ideas and very wise guidelines to follow. However, we have to be clear that these aren’t binding rules that every Christian needs to obey. And the reason we know that is because none of these things is specifically taught in the Bible. 

Then a third kind of legalism involves focusing excessively on external obedience. Even if we understand that we’re saved by grace alone and through faith alone, it’s still possible to focus so much on various behaviors that God calls us to embrace that we forget the spirit in which God calls us to embrace them. For this reason, I’ve heard this kind of legalism referred to before as having a legalistic spirit rather than actually advocating a legalistic doctrine. I’ve also heard it described as focusing so much on God’s law that we forget about his love and how it’s his love that should motivate us to want to keep his law. 

Someone who embraces this kind of legalism can talk about the Christian life in such a way that every individual sentence they say is technically true, but when you put it all together, it ends up being seriously deficient. This person might emphasize our duties to obey God and to serve God so much that they never actually get around to worshiping God or delighting in God or communing with God. So, they’re doing the right things, but they don’t have the right heart. Obedience to God has sort of become an end in itself rather than a manifestation of their love for God. So, someone who’s fallen into this kind of legalism might do a lot of great things. They might be very dutiful about living morally upright lives and reading the Bible every day and serving in the church and give money to the church and doing all of these other things that are very commendable. The problem, though, is that they’re doing these things simply out of duty rather than as a true expression of love for God. And that’s not what God desires. 

Instead, you want to know what God desires? He desires your heart. Now, it’s true that God expects us to obey his commands. That’s why he gave us his commands in the first place. However, God desires more than external obedience. He’s after your heart. 

For example, imagine that I bought my wife flowers for our anniversary. But when she told me how beautiful they were and how much she appreciated them, imagine that I said, “Don’t worry about it, honey. I’m just doing my duty.” How well do you think that response would go over with her? Probably not very well. My wife loves getting flowers for our anniversary but only insofar as those flowers are an expression of my love for her and delight in her. 

So, what about you? Just to get right down to it, are you captivated by God? When you think about who God’s shown himself to be in the pages of the Bible and the many facets of his character that are more glorious than we can even comprehend, does your heart just about leap out of your chest in joyful adoration of this glorious God? That’s what should be driving our pursuit of holiness. We should be pursuing holiness because we love God and delight in him with every fiber of our being. If you notice in our main passage[verses 15-16], Peter ties our pursuit of holiness to who God is. So, what God has joined together here through Peter, let’s make sure that we don’t separate.