1 Peter 1:13-25

A Call to Holy Living

13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. 15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.[a] 17 If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers. 18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth,[b] so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure[c] heart love one another constantly,[d] 23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For

All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like a flower of the grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.[e]

And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.

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In life, all our actions and decisions flow out from the pivotal phrase/thought…  ‘therefore’…  

it is critically important for you / us to know what precedes our, ‘therefore’. 

Peter laid the foundation for our ‘therefore’ … 1 Peter 1:3,4 

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  

SET (y)our intention from a posture of grateful reverential obedience to our Father in heaven, our co-suffering resurrected Saviour and our ever-available empowering presence of the Spirit. 

Holiness is a complicated word and concept. It feels like we need to run for the hills to accomplish this and yet Jesus demonstrated the exact opposite and called us to the same. 

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do… 1 Peter 1:15 

  • We live out HOLY lives from the gift of Jesus work of our salvation. 
  • HOLINESS is to live a Christ-like life in a Ceasar-like world.  
  • To be Spirit renewed, led to live out and manifest the current and future realities of the resurrection hope of the gospel. 

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 1 Peter 1:17 

What Peter is reminding us of, and we discover is that Christians / DISCIPLES are DISPLACED, DISTINCT and DEPLOYED: 

  • Disciples – people who find their Identity, Purpose and Belonging in God’s design and Christ’s redemptive work. 
  • Displaced - not needing anything from the world (this world is not our world), because they have Christ’s sufficiency. 
  • Distinct - an ongoing Spirit empowered surrender to Jesus’ grace and truth in all of life for all of life (Holiness). 
  • Deployed - looking for opportunities of influence, without fear of being influenced. 

Living Hope - manifesting the REALITIES of Christ’s resurrection - demonstrated through a deeply sincere LOVE to each other and our world desperate for HOPE.