Lust versus Holiness
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2010 · 14 February 2010
“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
For twelve verses Peter gave no commands and no admonitions and no exhortations. He just celebrated and blessed the God who elects and regenerates and refines and preserves. Then in verse 13 we see the first commandment of the Christian life: "Hope fully in the grace of God." Keep yourself mentally fit and morally sober to fight the fight of hope. So hope is the first thing we need to do.
Let me give you a literal rendering of this verse so you can see more clearly the relationship between the words. Peter says, "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind"—it's an image of a person wearing flowing garments tucking the garments into his belt so that he can run and move about freely and quickly without tripping over his clothes.
And the part of you that is to be freed by this girding up is your mind—"the loins of your mind." Do not think about worldly things, do not think about making money or buying a new house or a new car.
Then he goes on: "And being sober"—it's image of not being drunk when it comes to spiritual things. It implies alertness, and evaluating things correctly, because you see clearly, and your mind isn't numb with intoxicating worldly influences.
Then comes the main verb, and for the first time in this letter it's an imperative. It's a command: "Hope fully." Or: "Fix your hope completely." So the first command in this letter is an action you do with your mind and your heart. It's a command to hope. Hope is not an action of the body. It is an experience of the soul. Peter is commanding us to experience hope.
And then we see the second command: be holy (vv. 15, 16). Now we have two commands: Be hopeful in the grace of God; and be holy like the holiness of God. You can see that both of these commands call for a thorough orientation of life on God. Be a hope-filled person, and let the hope that you are filled with be hope in God. Be a holy person, and let the holiness that you have be like the holiness of God.
So when you are hoping, you are God-centered, and when you are holy, you are God-centered. The grace of God is the source of your hope and the holiness of God is the standard of your holiness.
Sometimes when we wrestle with biblical realities like holiness and hope, we miss the forest for the trees. The forest is this: Christian living is living permeated by God, at all times everyday, God as motive, God as guide, God as moral standard, God as comfort, God as strength, God as truth and God as joy.
What emerges from 1 Peter and the whole New Testament is that the Christian life is a life lived in God, ever aware of God, ever submitted to God, ever trusting God, ever guided by God and ever hoping in God.
What amazes me again and again today and what defines my life and ministry is that when I look into contemporary American cultural life, the most stunning and frightening reality is that people look to God as insignificant.
And when I look into the New Testament, the most stunning and frightening thing is that that is exactly the opposite, where God is everything. 1 Corinthians 3:7 says, “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”
Sometimes in a season of weakness I am so numbed by the insignificance of God in contemporary life that I don't feel the magnitude of the evil and the danger I am a part of. Then God speaks me in some pointed way as He did so recently. I was reading in bed about the prophet Hosea and came to these words (8:14): "Israel has forgotten his Maker, and built palaces."
Sometimes I might just read right over that, but not on that day. God spoke powerfully to me. And I laid down the Bible and closed my eyes and felt again the call on my life: Tell Christians to remember their Maker; and warn them about their palaces. Preach it on Sunday; teach it on Friday; and live it before your family and church elders and deacons.
The main thing to think about and feel about and act about in the world is God. Being caught up with anything more than God is idolatry. And that's where my heart was when I read these verses. Verse 16: "You shall be holy for I am holy." Verse 15: "Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your conduct."
God is the standard of holiness. Now what does that mean? Holiness has the root idea in the Old Testament (quoted here) of being separated from what is defective and evil and separated for God. So the Sabbath is holy to the Lord: separated from the pursuits of other days and dedicated to the Lord (Exodus 31:15).
Priests are holy to the Lord, set apart from ordinary pursuits and dedicated in a special way to the Lord, 2 Chronicles 23:6 says, “But let no one come into the house of the LORD except the priests and those of the Levites who serve. They may go in, for they are holy.”
When you apply that definition of holiness to God himself, something interesting happens. God is holy in that He is set apart from all that is evil and defective and impure. That's the first half of the definition. He has no taint of evil or deficiency.
But the other half of the definition is that God's holiness is his set-apartness for God. Now we have to be careful here lest we wipe out all the biblical distinctions between the holiness of God and the glory of God and the righteousness of God.
Let me try to give a simplified picture of the relationship between these three for you to test as you read the Scriptures. The holiness of God is the most fundamental reality of all. It refers to the reality that God is utterly unique and in a class by himself—that's his set-apartness—none compares with him.
There is no other Creator, no other sustainer, no other final measure of good and evil. "There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides thee, nor is there any rock like our God" (1 Samuel 2:2).
He is set apart in a class by himself, unequaled, unrivaled, totally underived, absolute in his being and perfection, without beginning or ending or improvement. In a word his holiness is the supremacy of his infinite worth among all that is.
The glory of God is the radiance or the outward expression of that perfection and value. For example using the sun, that light is its glory and fire is its holiness. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3).
And the righteousness of God is his faithfulness or commitment to act always in accord with the beauty of his glory and the value of his holiness. His righteousness is his allegiance to uphold and magnify the glory and the holiness of himself (cf. Psalm 143:11). If God were ever to act as if his glory were not important in the universe, he would be unrighteous. His action would be untrue.
So how should God's holiness impact our lives? The New Testament tells us as believers in Jesus to build our lives on the righteousness of God and the glory of God. But in this context Peter focuses on the holiness of God. How do we live like that?
Peter quotes God in verse 16, "Be holy, for I am holy." Does that mean to be totally unique in the universe the way God is? Of course not! What then? The key is found in comparing verse 14 and verse 15. Verse 14 tells us what the opposite of being holy is in contrast to the command to be holy in verse 15.
Verse 14,15: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior." So how does God brings his holiness to expression in the lives of believers?
1. We see things with a new understanding.
After we are called and made children of God we no longer see things in ignorance the way we once did. We see things differently. Verse 14: "not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance."
Now that we are called, born of God and children of God, we are not blinded by what Paul calls "deceitful desires." They don't deceive any more. We see through them. We are not foolish anymore like a little child that takes a nickel instead of a dime because it's bigger.
How often do we desire more of these worldly treasures because for that time they looked more valuable? Only when we understand that God’s treasure is not only a few times more valuable, but a million times more valuable, do we lose that desire that leads us astray.
Now we know better. What do we know better? Mainly God. We know the holiness of God. We know that human reality is vastly inferior to God in value. We learn more and more about our lust and God’s holiness.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, “It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.”
Once we were blind to the value of God. We turned away from the fountain of life and tried to construct cisterns for ourselves that cannot hold water (Jeremiah 2:13). Now, by God's Spirit, that foolishness and ignorance is gone, and we are beginning to assess things for what they really are. Now we see that the holiness of God is the supreme value in the universe.
2. We Put Away Old Desires and Experience New Ones
Replacing our former ignorance with the truth about God leads to putting away old desires and experiencing new ones. Verse 14: "not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance."
When we did not know God, we had deceitful desires. But now Peter calls them "former" desires. They are fading into the past. As much as we might have to fight them back with truth, they are not the defining power in our lives anymore. They are "former." They are not us now.
And this is where we live our daily lives continually, fighting back those old desires that used to control our lives. This is where we need the power of hope where we hope fully on God’s grace in our struggle to overcome our former lusts.
And this is where being sober is really needed, it's image of not being drunk when it comes to spiritual things. It implies alertness, and evaluating things correctly in your life, because you see clearly now these intoxicating influences and with God’s help you can overcome these.
Let me give you a few pitfalls that you will encounter and the protection that God provides for you in your journey.
PITFALL: Falling in love with the present world.
PROTECTION: Remember the deadly influence of world-love and ponder the never-ending delights of the fountain spring of God’s approval, fellowship and beauty.
PITFALL: Ignoring sin and not caring that this offends God’s holiness.
PROTECTION: Meditate on the Biblical truth that all that we do are acts toward God and not just toward man, and that God hates sin and that the holiness of God is the most important part of His character.
PITFALL: A sense of immunity from accountability and authority.
PROTECTION: Submit yourself to a few Biblically minded, spiritually wise advisers that are given the right to hold you accountable.
PITFALL: Succumbing to itching ears as love of truth evaporates.
PROTECTION: Develop a love for truth, even in its smallest details, and turn a deaf ear to the desires of men to have their ears scratched with the morality of this world.
PITFALL: A vanishing attention to Scripture.
PROTECTION: Give yourself untiringly to the study, meditation and memorization of Holy Scripture and then act accordingly to all that.
PITFALL: A growing disregard for the spiritual good of other Christians.
PROTECTION: Labor in praying and stir up your heart to love all people.
PITFALL: Disregard for the Biblical mystery of marriage.
PROTECTION: Remind yourself repeatedly that your marriage is a living ongoing video of Christ’s relationship to His church.
PITFALL: Compartmentalizing of the Christian’s life.
PROTECTION: View everything, and absolutely everything, as a woven together tapestry related to the value of the glory of God.
PITFALL: Feeling above the necessity of suffering and self-denial.
PROTECTION: Never forget the promise of Acts 14:22, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God". And never forget what it says in Luke 9:58, that the Son of Man had no place to lay his head. And develop a Biblical theology of futility and suffering, especially from Romans 8:17-30.
PITFALL: Giving in to self-pity under the pressures and loneliness of being a Christian in a godless world.
PROTECTION: Embrace the essence of the doctrine from Mark 10:29-30, “I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.
So I exhort you together with the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:14-15, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior."